By Brian Powell
After horrible ratings for the first round of the playoffs, the numbers were back up for the divisional round. But with two upsets taking place in that round -- both the Colts and Cowboys went down -- there were questions if the masses would tune into the championship games.
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The answer was yes, and by “yes” I mean “YES!” A staggering amount of viewers took in each of the contests on Sunday, easily beating the comparable games from last season, and the NFC Championship game was the most watched game on network television since last year’s Super Bowl.
CBS had the early game, which wasn’t good news since they presumably took a huge ratings hit when San Diego knocked out the Colts in the divisional round. People still tuned in to the closely contested game, and this year’s AFC Championship game bested last year’s comparable game (same time slot) between the Saints and Bears (FOX). The Chargers-Pats game finished with 27.4/48, up 4.6% from a 26.2/46 in 2007. That equates to about 29+ million this year vs. 27+ million viewers last season.
While those numbers seem pretty impressive, the NFC Championship just blew those out of the water. An amazing amount of people decided to take in the late game and FOX ended up with a 31.7/46, up 12.8% from a 28.1/40 for last year’s Patriots-Colts AFC Championship game (approximately 33 million vs. 28 million viewers). Not only was it the most watched game since last February’s Super Bowl, but it was the most watched championship game since the Packers faced the Cowboys in 1996.
There’s no telling what the ratings for the Super Bowl will be considering most project it to be a blowout. Having a New York team in the game will certainly help, but if the Pats jump out to an big lead early on (and are on their way to cover a 14-point spread) casual fans could easily shut the contest off and head to bed (the day after the Super Bowl should really be a national holiday).↵
Pack-Giants Most Watched Champ Game Since ‘96
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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