Weak ratings for NFL Week 5

What was perhaps the longest day in recent NFL history didn’t deliver on the ratings front for the league in Week 5.

Starting Sunday morning in London, the New York Jets-Minnesota Vikings International Series game drew just 4.95 million viewers on NFL Network, down 3.5% from last year’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills London tilt (5.13 million) in Week 5, per Sports Media Watch .

Moving onto the early afternoon window, CBS led the way for the first half of its doubleheader, averaging 14.34 million viewers for Buffalo Bills-Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens-Cincinnati Bengals throughout most of the country. That number was up 14% from last season’s Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game (12.63 million).

Fox turned in a similar number for its singleheader, averaging 14.24 million viewers, though was down 15% from the comparable window last year.

In the late afternoon for CBS, the Green Bay Packers-Los Angeles Rams game seen by most of the country averaged 20.27 million viewers, down 12% from a Kansas City Chiefs-Minnesota Vikings game (23.13 million) last season. The viewership figure is the lowest for a national window so far this season, per Sports Media Watch .

Wrapping up the day, NBC’s Sunday Night Football saw its worst audience of the season, in part due to a weather delay that pushed kickoff past 9:45 p.m. on the East Coast. The game between two of the NFL’s premier brands, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys, didn’t finish until nearly 1:00 a.m. and averaged 20.3 million viewers between linear television and streaming (17.81 million TV-only). SNF was down 23% from its Week 5 game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers last season.

Monday Night Football drew 15.91 million viewers for the New Orleans Saints-Kansas City Chiefs game across ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes. The number was down 8.5% from last season’s Green Bay Packers-Las Vegas Raiders game, with the caveat that last season’s game was simulcast on ABC while this week’s game was cable-only. Notably, MNF went head-to-head with a Kansas City Royals ALDS game Monday evening.

[ Sports Media Watch ]

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