Bills-Chiefs Draws Historic TV Ratings, but NFC Game Disappoints

Sunday’s NFL conference championship games provided two very different viewership realities, with one game making history, and the other extending a lengthy viewership decline for the league this season. 

CBS averaged an audience of 57.7 million for the AFC title game between the Bills and Chiefs, dramatically won by Kansas City 32–29, with that viewership representing the most-watched AFC championship game since the late 1980s advent of Nielsen’s People Meter measurement system. The figure surpassed last year’s NFC title contest, also played in the later 6:30 p.m. ET broadcast slot and drawing 56.7 million, by 1.7%.

The contest also ranks as the No. 2 in all-time viewership for the NFL in non–Super Bowl games in the last 37 years, trailing only the 2009 NFC title game between the Saints and Vikings, won by New Orleans in overtime and drawing an average of 57.9 million.

Fox, meanwhile, had a very different situation for the NFC championship game Sunday, won handily by the Eagles over the Commanders 55–23 in the earlier broadcast slot. The game averaged 44.2 million, down by 21% from the comparable draw of 55.7 million for the AFC title game last year—a figure that was a record for that conference matchup until Sunday. It’s worth noting that the 2023 season set NFL ratings records, and the first season of Taylor Swift’s presence aided the Chiefs in drawing enormous audiences.

The weaker figure for the NFC game—the worst for that conference title game since the 2018 season (Rams at Saints), and before the arrival of Nielsen’s counting of out-of-home audiences—extends declines seen throughout the NFL’s 2024 regular season, wild-card round, and divisional playoffs. It also helps create a more difficult situation for Fox to match the record-setting audience seen last year for Super Bowl LVIII with the upcoming Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 between the Chiefs and Eagles. 

The television audience for the AFC game, however, does additionally provide a counterargument to “Chiefs fatigue” that may be currently at play in a declining ticket resale market for Super Bowl LIX.