“The NFL slaughters everything,” said ESPN NASCAR Analyst Brad Daugherty. Yes the same Brad Daugherty who starred at North Carolina before becoming a franchise player for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA. Daughtery knows his sports and he knows that the NFL is the “national past time.” So we can officially bury that baseball misnomer. As there are are no baseball games on this list. Besides, that phrase is from the 1850s.
College football is the new second most popular sport behind the NFL. This list is the top ten since Super Bowl XLVII, that’s why you don’t see Alabama vs Notre Dame and any of the other BCS Bowls on the list.
5/10 games on this list are NBC Sunday Night NFL, and the NBC Sports press department sent out a release with this information, so you know it’s accurate. Because NBC takes press releases patting themselves on the back quite seriously, and they go into finite detail to do so. Obviously, everyone does it though. CBS and Fox Sports are really bad at it. No one is as obnoxious as ESPN though; they are the kings of self-gratification press releases.
The previous best November NFL primetime viewership was 31.5 million viewers for the defending Super Bowl-champion Dallas Cowboys’ 21-6 win over Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers on ABC on November 18, 1996.
Program, Date Avg. Viewers
1. Academy Awards, 2/24/13 40.4 million
2. Grammy Awards, 2/10/13 28.4 million
3. NFL Sunday Night Football (K.C. Chiefs vs Denver Broncos), 11/17/13 26.9 million
4. NFL Sunday Night Football (Broncos vs Indianapolis Colts), 10/20/13 26.9 million
5. NBA Finals Game 7 (Spurs-Heat), 6/20/13 26.3 million
6. Oscars Red Carpet Preview, 2/24/13 25.5 million
7. NFL Sunday Night Football (Giants-Cowboys), 9/8/13 25.4 million
8. NFL Kickoff Game (Ravens-Broncos), 9/5/13 25.1 million
9. NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship (Lousville vs Michigan Wolverines), 4/8/13 23.4 million
10. NFL Sunday Night Football (Redskins-Cowboys), 10/13/13 22.1 million
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan