Bengals-Chiefs averages 53.1 million viewers

AFC Championship - Cincinnati Bengals v Kansas City Chiefs
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The sequel did better than the original.

Bengals-Chiefs AFC Championship 2.0 drew a bigger audience than Bengals-Chiefs 1.0.

Per CBS, 53.124 million on average watched the game on Sunday night. It’s an 11-percent increase over last year’s game between the same two teams.

The game peaked at nearly 59.374 million viewers, presumably late in the fourth quarter.

In all, it was the most-watched conference championship game in four years.

Which raises the same question we ask once the audience is released for every Super Bowl. During a great football game like that, what the hell is the rest of the country doing?

48 responses to “Bengals-Chiefs averages 53.1 million viewers

  1. 53.1 million people that once again could not comprehend how a billion dollar league with million dollar first class athletes still cannot figure out the basic rules of the game and is unwilling or unable to field competent full time refereeing. Figure it out, Roger. This is what tarnishes your shield.

    The dark cloud of gambling isn’t going away and it will only get more dubious.

  2. NFL is king. The players play hurt. They give it their all. They take painkillers to be able to play. NBA and MLB guys take nights off just to rest. Yes, there are more games, but the sport is no way near as brutal as old fashioned gridiron football. Most grown men would not survive 10 snaps in an NFL game.

  3. The NFL is just fine with their fixed outcomes. All of us can see the missed calls that happen regularly but the NFL obviously doesn’t care. Maybe, the networks can get them to correct things.

  4. You guys think this was fixed?

    This was amateurs’ hour.

    Go back and watch Super Bowl 40 when the NFL wanted Bettis to get a ring in his hometown of Detroit.

    It started with the Seahawks throwing the first TD pass and it being nullified by offensive PI which the announcers said “I guess I missed it” and which was never called at the time.

    But the coup de grâce was a pass to the five by Seattle called back for holding which, again, the announcers shook their heads over.

    But here’s where it got funny.

    The next play Hasselbeck threw a pick and as the guy was running it back, Hasselbeck tackled him around the ankles. They threw a 15 yard penalty on Hasselbeck for a low block.

    That penalty put Pittsburgh in position for what was ultimately the winning TD.

    There were tons of articles from around the country about what a joke that game was.

    YES it’s fixed.

    And NO the NFL doesn’t care that you don’t like it.

  5. Parts of the country were in a drunken stupor for opposite reasons.
    And hard as it is to believe, some people don’t really care about football.

  6. elisuperbowlmvp says:
    January 31, 2023 at 10:17 am
    53.1 million people that once again could not comprehend how a billion dollar league with million dollar first class athletes still cannot figure out the basic rules of the game and is unwilling or unable to field competent full time refereeing. Figure it out, Roger. This is what tarnishes your shield.

    The dark cloud of gambling isn’t going away and it will only get more dubious.

    417Rate This

    ——

    Completely agree. Yet the viewer numbers prove otherwise. The league has fans wrapped around their fingers and I don’t get it. I didn’t watch. I won’t watch the Super Bowl. Simply put the fans are nearly 100% for better refereeing and know most games will be determined partly to fully based on inept refs calls. But guess what? They still watch, and I don’t get it. If people know something is wrong why keep expecting it to change? I don’t drive down the road expecting my flat tire to fix itself.

  7. The public and the NFL continue to prove Mark Cuban wrong. He’s just pissed he bought into the wrong pro sports league.

  8. Rigged…. Look no further than the KC/Cinci game last year. Mahomes played a perfect half, couldn’t miss…. Then the 2nd half he just up and forgets how to play footballcboosing not to throw to wide open receivers.. The league knew their precious LA market couldn’t compete with KC, yet Cinci was new to the playoffs so they were paired with LA to give LA a believable win. No way LA could compete with KC so Cinci was put in place. I knew last year Mahomes would be rewarded for his 2nd half “performance”. The bad thing is a lot of it came at Cinci’s expense. And the LA market is still horrible. The small markets make the NFL great, no matter the puppeteering.

  9. I know it means nothing because the masses will always watch and more will keep watching but the gambling, the greed, the corruption, man am I fading away from football. Sad.

  10. The new Brady-Manning rivalry. These two QBs will be dueling for many years to come.

  11. Man, what a bunch of whiners. Have some class Bengals fans, your team had a great year and fell just short of getting to the big game. Was the game ugly? Sure, but on both sides. Not sure what to expect in the Super Bowl, this 17 game season may be a bit much for players to stay healthy. The Chiefs have a number of players dinged up, and honestly Hurts doesn’t look 100% either. I guess we will see in a couple of weeks.

  12. Misleading. This is not indicative of the popularity of the teams. “AFC Championship game drew 53.1 million viewers.” Any 2 NFL teams in this game would have garnered the same viewership.

  13. austinspencer says:
    January 31, 2023 at 10:19 am
    NFL is king. The players play hurt. They give it their all. They take painkillers to be able to play. NBA and MLB guys take nights off just to rest. Yes, there are more games, but the sport is no way near as brutal as old fashioned gridiron football. Most grown men would not survive 10 snaps in an NFL game.

    ————-

    NHL players say hi.

  14. I watched both games in a bar with about 100 other people. How many other bars around the country had the game on and how do they account for those people?

  15. “53.1 million people that once again could not comprehend how a billion dollar league with million dollar first class athletes still cannot figure out the basic rules of the game and is unwilling or unable to field competent full time refereeing. Figure it out, Roger. This is what tarnishes your shield.

    The dark cloud of gambling isn’t going away and it will only get more dubious.”

    Your second paragraph contradicts your first. If it’s just that the refs are incompetent, what does gambling have to do with that?

  16. This particular Super Bowl is extremely disappointing after the NFC/AFC Championship games which are usually the highlight of the season. This year one game had so many bad calls with 100% going against one team. The other game began with 7 points that should not have been, due mostly to coaching staff asleep on the job (no challenge flag on 4th down pass). Then two quarterbacks knocked out of the game, which was no one’s fault, but at that point there was no game. Usually, the NFC/AFC Championship games help build the excitement. Not this year. After watching that AFC Championship game I’m gonna skip the Superbowl this year. Doesn’t feel right.

  17. I think the game is fixed and my team has been to 5 consecutive championship games…. To what degree, I don’t know. Is it 1 player on a team, or 10… Is it refs, coaches, executives I don’t know. I do think it would be out of it we’re really true. Bit to see one team play so we’ll one week, then look awful the next makes no sense. Or the great team losing to the really bad team…. The cap should make games close. And maybe it does, but there’s just times where it’s very far fetched.

  18. Um, I’m sure less people would have watched if it was Hundley vs. Thompson in the championship game…
    Name brand QBs sell. That’s the way it is.

  19. The lack of a call on a obvious penalty on the punt return DECIDED THE GAME not the players on the field so no real fan should be happy about that.

  20. Everyone talks about the play where they stopped it and gave the Chiefs another play when the clock operator did what the official told them to do and say it had nothing to do with the outcome because they punted later anyway but without those “extra” plays” and the time they used off the clock the Chiefs wouldn`t have even gotten the ball back! The Chiefs might have won in OT so i`m not saying it cost the Bengals the game but the officiating absolutely decided the outcome in regulation.

  21. Just re-watched the game…

    AFTER FURTHER REVIEW:
    Among the penalties called during this game, there were 4 holding calls against the Bengals, all crucial calls that were accepted by KC. There was 1 holding call against the Chiefs and it declined by Cincinnati due to the play gaining more yards than the penalty would have benefited.

    OPINION:
    The non-calls against both teams clearly favored KC. I don’t care for either team, but I enjoy a good, fair game. This wasn’t a fair game by any means.

    FACT:
    According to the officials, KC only held one time and that was on a play where the Bengals got more by declining the penalty.

  22. People like seeing a car wreck. No matter how horrific it is people gaze to see it. Also the earlier game was such garbage that people were going to pay more attention to this one. The officiating in this game was the top story on Twitter while it was happening too.

  23. I was finishing listening to Spare on audiobook, by Prince Harry. Reading PFT during the season and playoffs, then watching the Super Bowl are enough to fill my NFL interest. No need to watch.

  24. Bengals fan here. Sick and tired of hearing about the referees and trash talk. Much more interested in why with 2:30 left and the ball in a tie game. You either take it down to score or you kick it out of bounds and play defense to take it to OT. Much more devastating than a questionable call is giving up a 29 yard punt return with under a minute to go.

  25. 53.1 million fans tuned in to see what the NFL actually is: WWE Sports Entertainment and 100% rigged by the Officials.

  26. Nothing “questionable” about that call…they’ve called much less egregious
    unnecessary-roughness calls all year against much lower profile players than Mahomes.

    Thankfully, we can be done hearing how awesome Joe Burrow is for another year. 2 Picks, 5 sacks and a 70.2 QBR in the AFCCG puts him right in that Trent Dilfer – Joe Flacco bracket.
    That 1 Lamar Hunt trophy is only 3/4 of the way to the mountain top.
    Lose the arrogance, become humble again and better luck next year!

  27. “Everyone talks about the play where they stopped it and gave the Chiefs another play when the clock operator did what the official told them to do and say it had nothing to do with the outcome because they punted later anyway ….”

    Keep in mind had the Chiefs scored on the third down play it would have been replayed for the EXACT same reason.

  28. Once again…a league with these type of numbers has absolutely NO incentive to care about the integrity of the product or the sport. Better that this is a WWE-style extravaganza to keep the rubes (the public) entertained and distracted while the plot lines are written and executed, with the clown-show referees no better than pro rasslin’ ‘referees’, and the league and the teams make ever increasing hundreds of millions in profits.

  29. During a great football game like that, what the hell is the rest of the country doing?
    ****************************************************************************************

    I would imagine they are doing much more productive things like trying to survive in a sacred democracy of our values in a new world order. It’s about the bread. Not everyone likes or has time for the circus.

  30. I have heard from very reliable sources that since the fix is already in for the Super Bowl, Goodell has scheduled dress rehearsals for the presentation of the Lombardi trophy to Hunt, Reid, Mahomes and Kelce.

  31. The Refs just threw another late flag at Arrowhead, the teams have been called back to make FG closer for KC.

  32. Grow up!

    You think the NFL has “incompetent refs” and can’t figure out that younger, full time refs would be better?

    Or that they don’t want to pay for them?

    Seriously?

    The incompetence gives them the cover to massage outcomes.

    What a story – Reid against Philly.

    It’s almost like a made for TV event.

  33. Did anybody notice the mannerisms of Torbert he was nodding his head like someone was talking to him before he made the call on one instance? Other times he was delaying to announce what the penalty was because he had someone in his ear telling him what to say. And no it wasn’t just the do over play either. It was Def out of the ordinary. Ask me to bet though and I would put my money down on a crappy officiating crew over a fixed game, but maybe that’s exactly what the nfl wants you to believe that these ref’s are clearly incompetent so that they can run interference fixing these big games. The missed calls in that final drive were disgusting and tainted what would otherwise be considered a playoff classic.

  34. I didn’t watch. I don’t care about either team.

    To be honest, I despise the Chiefs and Eagles and have no plans to watch the Super Bowl either.

  35. NFL Pundit says:
    Just finished re-watching the game…..
    FACT:
    According to the officials, KC only held one time and that was on a play where the Bengals got more by declining the penalty
    ————
    Wrong! KC was called for holding on a Pacheco TD run on their second drive that took 7 points off the board.

  36. So the sports world is now following the Trump playbook. If you lose just act like a 5 year old and stomp your feet and scream IT WAS RIGGED. Good Lord you people are exhausting. I’m not gonna bother trying to be reasonable. The maga playbook says even if we prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the games are not rigged, the ridiculous, ignorant, lonely, conspiracy theorists will continue with, the announcers hate us, the refs are paid off and the NFL wants the Chiefs in the superbowl! Yes Kansas City. One of the smallest markets in the league. Not the Cowboys who are far and away the money cow of the league. Not a New York team. Nope, lil old Kansas City Missouri. Makes sense. By the way Mr Mayor, the state of Kansas became a state and named themselves Kansas 8 years after the thriving city of Kansas City, MO was named. Not the other way around. But in the world of MAGA why let the truth get in the way!

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