FOX Sports has announced an average audience of 40 million viewers for its Wild Card game broadcast on Sunday afternoon in the Green Bay Packers’ 48-32 defeat of the Dallas Cowboys. The matchup is projected to place the showdown as the property’s best performance for an NFL Wild Card game since 2015.
Moreover, the presentation peaked at 43.4 million viewers from the quarter-hour from 6:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST. The network’s lead NFL broadcast crew of play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, color commentator Greg Olsen, reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi were on the broadcast of the game. Viewership data for the matchup is provided by Nielsen Media Research and Adobe Analytics.
The reach of this game is up 20% over last year’s playoff tilt that aired in the same window when the New York Giants defeated the Minnesota Vikings. A total of 33.2 million viewers watched the matchup that gave the Giants their first postseason victory since the 2011 playoffs. Prior to their playoff loss on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys ended their regular-season with a victory against the Washington Commanders that elicited an average of 21.73 million viewers and a 10.8 overall rating for FOX Sports, according to data reported by Sports Media Watch.
The Green Bay-Dallas matchup was preceded by a special edition of FOX NFL Sunday that included an exclusive interview with CeeDee Lamb conducted by reporter Erin Andrews. FOX NFL insider Jay Glazer delivered his “Ins and Outs” leading up to the matchup while Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan and Rob Gronkowski delivered analysis on the panel hosted by Curt Menefee.
Two additional Wild Card round games are slated to be played on Monday afternoon, starting with a matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills on CBS at 4:30 p.m. EST/1:30 p.m. PST. Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson will be on the call for that game from Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. after it was postponed due to a snowstorm that significantly reduced visibility.
On Monday night, ABC and ESPN will televise the traditional broadcast of the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. ESPN2 will serve as the home of Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli featuring former NFL quarterbacks and Super Bowl champion brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. Both of these concurrent broadcasts of the action, which are being simulcast on ESPN+, are slated to begin at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST just before kickoff and will be preceded by the Monday Night Countdown pregame show.
