Despite a 33-minute weather delay that pushed kickoff past 9 p.m. ET, last night's 'NFL Kickoff' on NBC was watched by 25.1 million viewers -- up 5% from last year's opening-game and ranking as the third-most watched "NFL Kickoff" game in the 12-year history of the event, according to official national data released today by The Nielsen Company.
The AFC Divisional Playoff rematch, highlighted by Broncos QB Peyton Manning's NFL record-tying performance for most touchdown passes in a game (seven) as Denver handily defeated the Super Bowl-champion Baltimore Ravens 49-27, aired from 9:08 PM-12:25 AM ET following the weather delay in Denver.
The Broncos' 22-point win was the second-largest victory margin among NBC's "NFL Kickoff" games, trailing only the Manning-led Indianapolis Colts' 41-10 victory over New Orleans in 2007.
Last night's 25.1 million average viewership was up 5% over last year's "NFL Kickoff" game (23.9 million for Cowboys-Giants), and ranks as the third-most watched "NFL Kickoff" game, trailing only the 2011 Saints-Packers thriller between the two previous
Super Bowl winners (27.1 million), and the 2010 opener (Vikings-Saints, 27.5 million) featuring an NFC Championship Game rematch, as Brett Favre and the Minnesota
Vikings visited the then-defending Super Bowl-champion New Orleans Saints.
Last night's game had a national household rating of 14.9/26, the third-highest rated NFL Kickoff game behind 2010 (16.5/28) and 2011 (16.0/26). The highest-rated half hour was 10:00-10:30 PM ET with a 16.9/27.
DIGITAL:
NBC Sports Live Extra's live stream of last night's NFL Kickoff generated record-setting digital numbers. Fans consumed nearly 20.5 million minutes, setting a new
NBC Sports Live Extra record and making it the highest-trafficked non-Olympic, non-Super Bowl live stream in
NBC Sports Digital history.
The 20.5 million minutes shatters the previous record for an NFL game on
NBC of 10.6 million minutes, set last season for the Week 15 game (49ers vs. Patriots). Fans were engaged as they consumed 49.4 minutes per visit.
Last night's game was the best ever in numerous other key metrics on all platforms. The tablet-only stream accounted for 41 percent of the live starts and 29 percent of the minutes watched, which beat last year's season high of 27 percent of the live starts and 17 percent of the minutes watched.
NBC DOMINATES PRIMETIME: The NFL game on
NBC more than doubled the night's
Primetime averages of ABC,
CBS and
FOX combined, according to official national averages for those networks (22.8 million P2+ for
NBC vs. 11.2 million combined on ABC, CBS, and FOX). In addition, in the Adult 18-49 demo, Ravens-Broncos on
NBC nearly tripled the night's
Primetime averages of ABC,
CBS and
FOX combined (9.0 A18-49 rating for
NBC vs. 3.1 A18-49 combined on ABC, CBS, and FOX). NBC's 9.0 in the Adult 18-49 demo is the top
Primetime average for any network on a Thursday night since August 2, 2012 during NBC's coverage of the 2012 London Olympics.
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