FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 30th, 2019
COWBOYS-SAINTS THRILLER IS MOST-WATCHED WEEK 4 NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL GAME EVER, WITH 24.7 MILLION VIEWERS ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS
NBC’s Sunday Night Football off to Best Start Through Week 4 Since 2016
Cowboys-Saints Is NBC Sports Digital’s Most-Streamed, Authenticated NFL Regular Season Game Ever
Last Night’s 12-10 Saints’ Win is 4th Consecutive Dallas-New Orleans SNF Game to Draw 20+ Million TV Viewers & 26th Cowboys SNF Game to Top 20 Million Viewers since 2011
STAMFORD, Conn. – September 30, 2019 – The New Orleans Saints’ down-to-the-wire 12-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on NBC’s Sunday Night Football posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of 24.7 million viewers, according to fast national data released by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics – marking the most-watched Week 4 NBC SNF game ever, and helping Sunday Night Football to its best start through Week 4 since 2016.
The Cowboys-Saints TAD of 24.7 million viewers across NBC TV, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms, represents a 35% increase over last year’s Week 4 game (18.2 million for Ravens-Steelers) and is the most-watched regular-season game on NBC in nearly three years (26.7 million for Cowboys-Giants on Dec. 11, 2016).
NBC’s Sunday Night Football is averaging 21.4 million viewers across all platforms this season – the best start for the series through Week 4 (five games) since 2016, and up 5% from the same point last season (20.3 million viewers).
The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for Sunday night’s live stream via NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms was 599,000 viewers – NBC Sports Digital’s most-streamed, authenticated SNF regular-season game on record, and more than double last year’s Week 4 SNF game (286,000 for Ravens-Steelers). NBC Sports Digital’s AMA of 519,000 viewers for SNF through Week 4 is up 36% from the same point last season.
Last night’s game averaged 24.1 million viewers on NBC TV, marking an NFL-high 26th time (in 29 appearances) since 2011 that the Cowboys played in an NBC SNF game which delivered at least 20 million TV viewers. The Saints moved into the top 10, with their sixth such SNF game in that stretch. Below are the teams to play in the most blockbuster viewership games (20 million viewers) since 2011, when NBC Sunday Night Football began its streak as the #1 primetime show for an unprecedented eight consecutive years:
| Team | Games Averaging 20 Million Viewers |
| Dallas Cowboys |
26 |
| New England Patriots |
17 |
| Green Bay Packers |
17 |
| Denver Broncos |
13 |
| New York Giants |
12 |
| Philadelphia Eagles |
11 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers |
10 |
| Chicago Bears |
8 |
| Atlanta Falcons |
6 |
| Indianapolis Colts |
6 |
| Kansas City Chiefs |
6 |
| New Orleans Saints |
6 |
| San Francisco 49ers |
6 |
With last night’s game, the Cowboys-Saints matchup ties for the third-most frequent NFL matchup to hit the 20-million viewer milestone on SNF since 2011. Following are the matchups in the NBC SNF package to average at least 20 million viewers in the last eight years:
| Matchup | Games Averaging 20 Million Viewers |
| Cowboys-Giants |
9 |
| Cowboys-Eagles |
7 |
| Cowboys-Saints |
4 |
| Packers-Bears |
4 |
| Broncos-Chiefs |
3 |
Last night’s game (8:23 p.m.-11:18p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 13.7/27, and peaked at 26.0 million TV viewers from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET.
TOP METERED MARKETS FOR COWBOYS-SAINTS:
| 1. | New Orleans | 57.0/74 |
| 2. | Dallas | 38.2/59 |
| 3. | San Antonio | 31.1/47 |
| 4. | Austin | 28.8/48 |
| 5. | Albuquerque | 23.6/38 |
| 6. | Norfolk | 20.3/34 |
| 7. | Richmond | 20.0/31 |
| 7. | Memphis | 20.0/30 |
| 9. | Houston | 19.8/35 |
| 10. | Philadelphia | 19.0/31 |
–SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL–
