UPDATED with more SNF data: Sunday Night Football continued to reign on the last Sunday of 2019, with the San Francisco 49ers’ victory over the Seattle Seahawks with its playoff implications earning a 4.8 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and netting a whopping 17.35 million viewers.
The 49ers’ 26-21 victory on NBC clinched the NFC West title and a first-round bye, the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the postseason that begins next week. The game surged from last week’s Kansas City-Chicago game, growing eight tenths in the demo and almost 3 million viewers in the early Nielsen numbers.
Last night’s SNF season finale drew 25.7 million viewers from 11:15-11:28 PM ET as the game went to the wire. Overall, the broadcast networks’ top-rated and most-watched primetime show for a ninth year in a row averaged 20.5 million viewers in 2019 – up 5% from last year and 12% over 2017 (18.4 million), according to fast-national Live + Same Day data. That’s the best the franchise has seen since its record showing in 2015.
As always, live NFL broadcasts (this week on NBC, CBS and Fox) will likely mean adjustments in the final stats.
Among the few originals on Sunday in primetime was Fox’s new dating reality series Flirty Dancing (1.0, 3.50M); it should be noted that Flirty Dancing aired live across all time zones, meaning the fast nationals will adjust. Hosted by Jenna Dewan, the series combines a blind date with choreographed dance routines.
Elsewhere, 60 Minutes (1.1, 7.61M) was up from last week as reruns roamed free across the other networks.
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