Thursday Final Nationals: Chiefs-Patriots on NBC Registers Least-Watched NFL Kickoff Game in Eight Years

The good news for NBC: the network dominated Thursday night with the start of the 2017 NFL regular season — featuring the Kansas City Chiefs’ surprising 42-27 victory over the defending champion New England Patriots. According to overnights, NBC won this night by a wider margin over its broadcast network competition combined than the year-ago NFL kickoff night.

NBC's primetime overnights: larger margin (+100% vs. +85%) over ABC-CBS-Fox-CW combined from '16

9/07/17 13.2 vs. 6.6
9/08/16 14.6 vs. 7.9

— Douglas Pucci (@SonOfTheBronx) September 8, 2017

Also, the game’s average minute audience on streaming was 355,000 viewers, up 32 percent from last year (268,000). NBC Sports reports it’s their largest-ever viewership via streaming for a regular season game.

The not-so-good news: Chiefs-Patriots drew 21.8 million viewers on television, a decline of 13 percent from last year’s kickoff game (Panthers-Broncos on Sep. 8, 2016: 25.19 million) and the least-watched start to an NFL season since Titans-Steelers (20.9 million) in 2009. Some factors for the lower-than-expected NFL ratings were the increased attention to cable news and Weather Channel as Hurricane Irma was in the Caribbean and approached Florida.

Cable news nets + Weather Channel, NFL opening night, major markets:

2017: 6.4
2016: 4.3
2015: 3.0

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) September 8, 2017

NBC viewership for the game (not including digital) peaked from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET with 23.9 million viewers.

Providence, Rhode Island was the top market for the game with a 35.6 rating/55 share. The rest of the top ten markets were: Kansas City (35.5/55), Boston (35.0/59), Denver (20.6/38), New Orleans (20.4/29), Norfolk (18.9/31), Richmond (18.9/30), Buffalo (17.7/30), Milwaukee (17.2/28), and Seattle (17.1/32).

(Source: NBC Sports)

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* AFF = Number of affiliates (stations) airing the program
* CVG = percent of coverage in U.S.
	Thursday, September 7, 2017
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.6/3	2527	0.3/1	0.6/2	0.8/2
8:00	Battle of the Network Stars (s)	261	92	1.9/3	2979	0.3/2	0.6/2	0.9/3
9:00	Battle of the Network Stars	254	92	1.6/3	2471	0.3/1	0.6/2	0.8/2
10:00	The Gong Show	253	91	1.4/3	2133	0.3/1	0.5/2	0.7/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			3.1/6	4924	0.7/4	1.1/4	1.5/5
8:00	Big Bang Theory (r)	254	92	4.2/8	6575	0.6/3	1.2/5	1.8/6
8:31	Mom (rs)	254	92	3.3/6	5123	0.5/3	0.9/3	1.4/4
9:00	Big Brother 19	254	92	3.8/7	6236	1.4/6	1.8/6	2.3/7
10:00	Zoo	253	92	1.7/3	2662	0.3/1	0.5/2	0.7/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			11.4/21	19774	5.4/27	6.8/26	7.8/25
7:30	NFL Kickoff Show (s)			3.7/8	5871	1.0/7	1.6/8	1.9/8
8:00	NFL Opening Kickoff Show (s)	243	92	5.8/11	9847	2.4/15	3.1/14	3.6/14
8:29	NFL Thursday Pre-Kick (s)	243	92	9.4/17	16231	4.2/24	5.4/23	6.2/22
8:42	NFL Thursday Special Kansas City @ New England (s) (thru 12:00 a.m.)	243	92	12.6/23	21762	6.1/30	7.7/29	8.8/28
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-10	Network Average			1.4/3	2197	0.4/2	0.7/3	0.9/3
8:00	Beat Shazam	258	92	1.5/3	2420	0.5/2	0.8/3	1.0/3
9:00	Love Connection	258	92	1.3/2	1973	0.4/2	0.6/2	0.8/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-10	Network Average			0.8/1	1293	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
8:00	Penn & Teller: Fool Us	251	90	0.9/2	1418	0.3/1	0.4/1	0.4/1
9:00	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	251	90	0.7/1	1209	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
9:30	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (r)	251	90	0.7/1	1129	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.0/2	1785		0.6/2
7:00	La Rosa de Guadalupe			0.9/2	1641		0.6/3
8:00	Enamorándome de Ramón			0.8/2	1598		0.5/2
9:00	Mi Marido Tiene Familia			1.1/2	1952		0.6/2
10:00	La Tierra Prometida			1.0/2	1804		0.6/2
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.3/0	491		0.2/1
7:00	La Candidata			0.2/0	331		0.1/1
8:00	Totalmente Diva (r)			0.2/0	396		0.1/0
9:00	Totalmente Diva			0.3/1	583		0.2/1
10:00	Rosario Tijeras			0.3/0	495		0.2/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.1/2	1846	0.7/3	0.8/3
7:00	Caso Cerrado: Edición Estelar			0.9/2	1562	0.3/2	0.5/2
8:00	Jenni Rivera: Mariposa de Barrio			0.9/2	1596	0.5/2	0.6/2
9:00	Sin Senos Sí Hay Paraíso			1.1/2	1801	0.6/3	0.7/3
10:00	El Señor de Los Cielos V			1.2/2	2142	0.9/4	1.0/4

Sub-Demo Breakdowns – Thursday 9/07/17



Cable Rankings – Thursday 9/07/17
What follows are the top 100 most-watched shows in prime time on cable (by order of network) for Thursday, September 7:

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research