The bad news is the game stunk (except for Patriots fans). The good news is that the numbers didn’t.
Via John Ourand of SportsBusiness Daily, Thursday’s Texans-Patriots game generated an overnight rating of 12.5. That represents an increase of five percent over last year’s 11.9 for the Week Three game between Washington and the Giants.
While not a major jump, it’s a welcome sign for the NFL following a string of seven prime-time games featuring dramatically lower ratings than the apples-to-apples comparisons from 2015.
The trend could continue on Sunday night, given the presence of the Cowboys in the main prime-time game of the week. Come Monday night, however, the viewership for Falcons-Saints undoubtedly will drop, perhaps dramatically, as the game conflicts with the first presidential debate.