The Kansas City Chiefs win over the Denver Broncos in an overtime thriller drew an 11.8/20 overnight rating share. NBC Sports’ PR team did their job in spinning it that it topped the last Chiefs game and the last Broncos game on Sunday Night Football (an 11.0 and an 11.7 respectively.)
But the game was way down — 27 percent –versus last year’s week 12 Sunday night matchup, another overtime thriller featuring the Patriots versus the Broncos that drew a 16.2 overnight rating.
I’d have expected this year’s game to be down from last year’s, but down 27 percent? I wouldn’t have expected that. My current theory — that more and more not only did the primetime matchups have to be good to rate well, the actual games also had to be very good — is blown. The matchup was good and the game was arguably great.
Last night’s matchup wasn’t great though. Nobody thinks Alex Smith or Trevor Siemian is the same kind of draw Tom Brady is. For what it’s worth Peyton Manning didn’t play in last year’s week 12 contest, Brock Osweiler did.
I might have to modify my theory to “Not only do the primetime matchups need to be great to rate well, the games have to be great, too.”
Top local markets for Chiefs/Broncos:
Denver 45.9/68
Kansas City 41.0/60
Albuquerque 20.8/32
Vegas 17.1/27
Sacramento 16.4/26
San Diego 16.0/26
Richmond 15.5/24
New Orleans 15.2/22
Salt Lake 14.8/26
Norfolk 14.3/24
How popular are the Chiefs though? I don’t care for them and only watched because of the Broncos.