The Philadelphia Eagles continue to be arguably the NFL’s biggest draw in 2023.
Sunday afternoon’s Bills-Eagles instant classic scored a 15.2 rating and averaged 30.90 million viewers on CBS — the highest-rated game of the NFL season and the third-most-watched game of the season behind only the first two Thanksgiving games.
It was the most-watched national game window for CBS since a Patriots-Colts matchup in 2007 (33.82M viewers) and was a 32% increase from last year’s comparable window. It was also the first national window in the regular season outside of Thanksgiving to top the 30 million milestone since 2014.
Overall, CBS is experiencing its strongest season since it began broadcasting NFL games again in 1998, averaging 19.7 million viewers.
But the biggest beneficiary of the Eagles’ enormous popularity this year is Fox.
In October, its broadcast of the Jets’ upset win over the Eagles averaged 26.09 million viewers, followed by Philadelphia’s win over Dallas in November, which averaged 27.14 million — both the most-watched games on linear television to their respective points in the season.
The Eagles also played in Super Bowl LVII on Fox — which they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs — that averaged 113 million viewers and as many as 200 million when accounting for viewing party sizes and streaming.
ESPN has also benefited from Philly fever, with the recent Super Bowl rematch on “Monday Night Football” averaging 29 million viewers.
