The next-to-last Sunday Night Football of 2018 put up big year-to-year gains for NBC, continuing a trend that’s run for much of the season.
The Seattle Seahawks’ 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs drew a 12.6 household rating in metered markets — up a hefty 40 percent versus the same week last year (9.0 for a Saturday-night game). It was the top week 16 game for SNF since 2014 and the 13th time in the last 16 weeks (including Thanksgiving) that Sunday Night Football has improved on its 2017 numbers.
For the season as a whole, SNF is up about 6 percent in viewers versus 2017 pending final results for Sunday’s game. That figure will bump up a little if the final ratings show as big an improvement as the metered markets.
CBS’ 60 Minutes scored a 1.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.94 million viewers, and the 100th episode of Madam Secretary, which aired an hour earlier than usual, came in at 0.8 and 5.86 million. The 0.8 in the demo for Madam Secretary will be a season high if it holds.
ABC’s special The Year: 2018 earned a 0.5 in the demo.
NBC easily led the night among adults 18-49 with a 4.2 rating (pending updates), two points better than CBS’ 2.2 (pending updates). ABC and Fox tied for third at 0.5, and The CW managed just a 0.1 with a pair of reruns.
Dec. 24, 11:05 a.m.: This story previously misstated the date of Sunday Night Football’s final telecast of the season. It is Dec. 30.
