NFL TV Ratings Average 18.4 Million Through Week 8

NFL television audiences are entering Week 9 ahead of last season, with games averaging 18.4 million viewers through Week 8, according to Sports Business Journal’s November 5 report. That is a 3% increase and the strongest average at this point in the season in the publication’s records dating to 1988.

The season figure covers multiple broadcast packages. It should be distinguished from the audience for one game, a network’s season average or the number of different people who have watched football.

CBS helped drive the latest week. Its national Sunday window, led by Kansas City against Denver in most markets, averaged approximately 28.2 million viewers. The report puts CBS’s overall season average at 19.6 million, up 5%. Those two CBS figures measure different sets of broadcasts.

Monday Night Football’s distribution matters

ESPN’s November 4 release reports 16.4 million viewers for Bears–Seahawks across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and NFL+. The game had no ABC simulcast. ESPN describes it as the most watched game without an ABC simulcast since November 2019, covering 76 such telecasts.

The Peyton and Eli Manning alternate broadcast contributed 864,000 viewers. That audience is a component of the combined event total and should not be added to 16.4 million again. ESPN reported a peak of one million for the alternate show shortly before halftime.

Through eight weeks, Monday Night Football is averaging 18.7 million viewers, up 22%, according to ESPN. Its Monday Night Countdown pregame audience was 1.7 million for Week 8, up 17% from the comparable episode.

The growth is uneven across packages. Sports Business Journal reports that Sunday Night Football’s Eagles–Commanders audience was below the corresponding game last season, while Prime Video’s Thursday package remained on pace for an Amazon season record.

The practical conclusion is that the league’s combined average is rising even when individual windows decline. Comparing the same reporting period and distribution prevents a strong network result from being mistaken for the entire NFL’s audience.