Last night’s Seattle Seahawks 26-6 victory over the Detroit Lions in the NFC wild card game handed NBC a 16.5/27 rating/share, putting the network atop ABC, CBS and Fox in adults 18-49. The household results from the 56 markets metered by Nielsen Media Research – sans digital data – mark the best Saturday night metered-market rating for any network since the January 16, 2016 Packers-Cardinals battle, which gave NBC a 20.3/34.
The overnight ratings for the game, played in Seattle, peaked at 17.2/28 from 9-9:30pm ET, and top markets were Seattle (46.8/72); Detroit (33.0/49); Portland (30.1/44); Richmond (22.5/31); and Milwaukee (22.0/35).
Rounding out the top 10 local markets: Norfolk (21.6/31); Las Vegas (21.3/34); Denver (20.3/36); Phoenix (19.1/32); and Greensboro (19.0/26).
Nielsen’s fast-affiliate ratings are not time zone-adjusted and are subject to change for live sports coverage.
The game also might have boosted NBC’s encore telecast of Saturday Night Live hosted by Tom Hanks, which aired late (12-1:30 a.m. ET) and averaged a 3.9/11 in households and a 1.8/9 in 18-49. The rerun was the highest-rated SNL encore in four years in metered-market households, with last night’s 3.9 in 18-49 the show’s best since the Louis C.K. episode January 5, 2013 (4.6).
