After setting “Kickoff Week” records last week, the NFL is off to a good start in week 2 with the CBS/NFL Network Thursday night football match combining for a record 14.3/25 overnight household rating/share for the Denver Broncos late win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
That bettered the previous record for the CBS/NFL Network combo by 4% that was set with last year’s Steelers/Ravens opener (13.7/23 on September 11, 2014).
The game peaked with a 15.0/30 share from 11:30p-midnight ET.
Overnight household rating = the live+same day DVR overnight metered-market household rating from the top 56 Nielsen television markets. The 56 markets (out of 210 total) account for about 70% of the US TV-viewing population. The overnight household rating is the percentage of the households that were tuned-in in those markets.
Update: the game also set viewership records for CBS/NFL Network. Via CBS Sports:
Last night’s game was seen by an average of 21.117 million viewers, +2% from last year’s 20.777 million, and earned an average national household rating/share of 12.9/24, +2% from last year’s 12.7/22 for the comparable premiere broadcast on CBS and NFL Network (Pittsburgh-Baltimore; 9/11/14).