We’ve already discussed the enormous television ratings these NFL playoffs are generating, but the latest number to come in from last night’s NFC Championship Game makes it worth revisiting the subject.
Between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Eastern, Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated notes, 69.0 million viewers were watching the Giants-49ers game.
The game’s audience grew as it went on, and that monster number came during overtime. (It was probably bolstered a bit by non-football fans tuning in for American Idol, which was delayed by the game running late.) To put the audience in perspective, it’s 15 million more people than were watching at the end of the Steelers-Broncos playoff game, which up to that point was the most-watched television program of any kind since the Super Bowl.
According to the NFL, an average of 53.7 million viewers watched NFL games on Sunday, making it the most-watched Conference Championship Sunday in 30 years.