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On a busy sports television night, the Denver Broncos-New Orleans Saints Thursday Night Football matchup on Prime Video drew an average of 9.81 million viewers according to early Nielsen panel only measurement. Despite competition from the MLB playoffs and early season NHL action, the game was a slight increase over the game from a season ago.
The game won the night on all head-to-head broadcast and cable programming, up almost 50% over the No. 2 program. In addition to the busy night on television, the game was also a blowout with the Broncos winning 33-10 as they improved to 4-3 while the Saints dropped to 2-5. The game peaked at 11.72 million viewers between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets were playing Game 4 of the NLCS in the same timeframe and that game drew 3.96 million viewers on average to FS1.
Prime Video reports through six games, Thursday Night Football is averaging 13.31 million viewers, 12% higher than last season’s full year average of 11.86 million and 39% higher than 2022’s season average of 9.58 million. Additionally, the network says the median age of those watching TNF is 47.4, more than 7.5 years younger than audiences watching the NFL on linear networks (54.9), and more than 15 years younger than the broadcast primetime average (62.5).
TNF Tonight, which kicks off each week at 7 p.m. ET, is also up. The show is averaging 1.54 million viewers, which is an increase of 11% over last year’s full-season average.
Thursday Night Football, which features a broadcasting trio of Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung, will next have the Minnesota Vikings at the Los Angeles Rams and will then finish the month with the Houston Texans at the New York Jets.