The NFL distributed a press release Wednesday boasting about its continued dominance over the American television landscape, noting that NFL games rank as 13 of the 15 most-watched shows of the fall television season.
The highest-rated game of the season so far? Sunday’s Cowboys-Patriots matchup, which got 28.4 million viewers. That makes it the second-most watched television show of the fall season, topped only by the 28.7 million viewers for the season premiere of Two and a Half Men. Apparently the only person who can out-draw Tom Brady and Tony Romo is Ashton Kutcher.
(I confess that I’m one of the 28.7 million who tuned in for the Two and a Half Men season premiere, curious to see how they’d handle the departure of Charlie Sheen. I turned it off after 10 minutes, and those were the first and last 10 minutes of Two and a Half Men I’ve watched. What people find funny about that show I can only imagine.)
Overall, the top 15 television shows of the fall season include five appearances by the Cowboys, four with the Packers, three with the Patriots, two with the Jets, two with the Falcons, two with the Bears and two with the Saints.
And the one other show in the Top 15 that wasn’t an NFL game? That was this season’s second episode of Two and a Half Men.