Cowboys Score A Win & ‘Sunday Night Football’ Week 2 Ratings Up From 2017

Dominic Patten
Updated
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Taking down the New York Giants 20-13 last night on their home turf of AT&T Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys had a very good Sunday. Not only did the big draw Lone Star State team score their first win of the new NFL season but quarterback Dak Prescott snagged a new career record with a 64-yard touchdown wining pass.

All of which meant it was not such a good night for Eli Manning and the Giants with their second loss of the season. On the other hand, with last year’s opening game big market and big draw teams on the field, it was also a good night for Sunday Night Football, at least when it came to the often brittle ratings.

Week 2 of the NBC gridiron flagship show snared a 13.8/24 in meter market results.

That’s up 10% from Week 2 of last season when the Atlanta Falcons beat the Green Bay Packers 34-23 on September 17, 2017. Down just 4%, last night’s SNF is also steady in the early metrics from the official season opener of September 9, 2018, where the Packers beat the Chicago Bears in a dramatic 24-23 comeback surge.

Unlike last year’s Week 2 SNF, last night’s Cowboys and Giants stand-off did not face the competition of the Primetime Emmy Awards either. On CBS in 2017, with that terrible Sean Spicer cameo, TV’s big night rotates to NBC this year. Which means, like in 2014 when the Comcast-owned net previously was on Emmy duty, the Michael Che and Colin Jost hosted 70th Primetime Emmys were shifted to a Monday to stay out of football’s way.

Whether that will prove a boon to the ceremony, which hit a ratings low last year, is TBD tonight.

What we do know is that last year’s SNF Week 2 went on the hit 20.2 million viewers and 7.1 rating among adults 18-49. This year’s SNF opener ended up with a 7.5 rating in the key demo and an NBC audience of 22.12 million.

As we await more SNF ratings from a Sunday that saw very few protests by players and none for the primetime game, here is a stat to chew on: last night’s game peaked in the 2nd quarter with 14.7/25 metered market rating in the 9 – 9:15 PM ET slot. And here’s one more: last night’s SNF was the best Week 2 the NBC show has had since 2015 when the Seattle Seahawks and the Packers basically had a rematch of their NFC Championship game.

Oh, and here’s the career long touchdown pass by the Cowboy’s QB, watch & learn:

As for the rest of primetime, while there wasn’t an Emmys awards on a last night, Big Brother (1.7/6) and 60 Minutes (2.6/11) came in up a tenth and 225% respectively thanks to well watched NFL overruns on CBS. ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud (0.9/4) dropped two-tenths from its last original to a season low, as was The $100,000 Pyramid (0.7/3). In the unadjusted fast affiliates, SNF got a 6.2/24 among the key demo and 18.9 million viewers. That’s a mere 6% slip among the 18-49s from what the later adjusted season opener of last week drew in the fast affiliates.

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