NFL championship games attracted huge TV audiences
The Los Angeles Rams’ dramatic win over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday was one of the most-watched television shows of the century.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ comeback against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game was a ratings winner, too.
The NFC Championship Game drew 50.2 million viewers, making it one of just 11 non-Super Bowls to hit the 50 million mark since the last episode of “Seinfeld” attracted 76.3 million in 1998. Of those 11, only the final episode of “Friends” in 2004 (52.5 million) wasn’t an NFL conference championship game.
The Bengals-Chiefs game had 47.9 million viewers, up from 41.85 million for the previous season’s AFC Championship Game. The prior NFC title game had 44.8 million viewers.
Overall, last week’s two games saw a 10 percent increase in viewership from the same weekend last year and a 16 percent jump from the conference championship games in January 2020.
The NFC Championship Game drew its highest rating in eight years, while the AFC Championship Game posted its best rating in four years.
Last year’s Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chiefs drew an average of 91.6 million viewers, the lowest figure for a Super Bowl since 2006. The record was set by Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015, when the New England Patriots’ win over the Seattle Seahawks attracted 114.4 million viewers.
–Field Level Media
