Last weekend’s four playoff games gave the NFL its biggest divisional playoff audience in 16 years, the league said today.
According to the league, an average of 33.0 million fans watched NFL games last weekend, a 15 percent increase from last year and the most for an NFL divisional playoff weekend since January of 1994.
The Cowboys-Vikings game led the way with 37.7 million viewers. That’s not just the most-watched football game of the season, it’s the most-watched program on television of any kind since Super Bowl XLIII.
The last time the NFL drew a bigger audience for the divisional playoffs, the games included Joe Montana leading the Kansas City Chiefs over the Houston Oilers, Jim Kelly leading the Buffalo Bills over the Los Angeles Raiders, Steve Young leading the San Francisco 49ers over the New York Giants and Troy Aikman leading the Dallas Cowboys over a Green Bay Packers team quarterbacked by Brett Favre.