https://nypost.com/2018/09/24/nfl-ratings-continue-upward-trend/It’s still early in the season, but the NFL’s TV ratings are showing signs of life.
Buoyed by viewer interest in the Detroit Lions’ victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday night, the NFL posted a Week 3 ratings gain of 2.6 percent.
The results do not include the week’s final telecast — ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
For the season-to-date, NFL ratings are up 0.7 percent, according to Nielsen.
A strong Week 3 reversed what had been a ratings decline of 0.3 percent through the first two weeks — not counting any “MNF” games, as they couldn’t yet be factored into the results.
After Week 1, NFL ratings were up 1.9 percent over last year.
Ratings, a percentage of TV viewers tuned into a particular show, are different from total viewers.
In Week 3, the biggest winner was the Lions-Patriots game, which scored an overnight rating of 13.6 — the best for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” since 2015, representing a 17.2 percent ratings increase over the comparable telecast a year ago.