The Sunday afternoon NFL Wild Card round matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles averaged 35.9 million viewers on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports streaming platforms, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. The game finished as the most-watched telecast of the week on any network and was also the second-best performance for the company in the Wild Card round, which took place in 2017 when the Packers faced the New York Giants. During the 7 to 7:15 p.m. EST quarter-hour, the average audience of the game peaked with 39.5 million viewers.
This matchup accounts for the third most-watched NFL game during the 2024 season as a whole, finishing behind two afternoon games on Thanksgiving Day that aired on FOX (Giants-Cowboys, 38.8 million) and CBS (Bears-Lions, 37.4 million), respectively. Compared to the Wild Card round matchup on FOX last year though, the game is down 11% from the Packers-Cowboys matchup, which averaged 40.2 million viewers.
Nonetheless, the playoff tilt accounts for the third-largest Wild Card audience since 2019, finishing behind the aforementioned Packers-Cowboys game and a 2022 matchup between the Cowboys and 49ers on CBS and Nickelodeon that averaged 41.5 million viewers. With the victory, the Eagles will face the Los Angeles Rams with a spot in the Championship Round on the line. Philadelphia looks to win the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2017 season.
The lead NFL on FOX broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, analyst Tom Brady and reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi were on the broadcast for the NFC matchup. FOX will broadcast the NFC divisional round matchup between the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions from Ford Field on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. EST. The network will also present Super Bowl LIX from New Orleans in early February under its 10-year media rights deal with the NFL reportedly worth $2.25 billion annually.
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