The Buffalo Bills’ 37-34 overtime loss Sunday to the Philadelphia Eagles had huge local and national TV ratings.
The game featuring MVP-like performances from Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was called “the game of the year” by NFL analysts on several national outlets.
Locally, the game had a season-high 48.0 rating on WIVB-TV (Channel 4), the local CBS affiliate.
The rating hit highs of 51.4, 51.6 and 51.7 at the end of regulation and overtime, which are Super Bowl-type ratings.
Before Sunday, the highest-rated game of the season was the 46.7 rating for the Bills season-opening overtime loss on "Monday Night Football" against the New York Jets simulcast by ABC affiliate WKBW-TV (35.7), ESPN (10.5) and ESPN 2 (0.5).
A rating point in Western New York averages 6,375 households.
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The two Bills games before Sunday’s loss had ratings in the lower 40s.
The Bills’ 24-22 loss to the Denver Broncos on "Monday Night Football" on Nov. 13 had a combined 43.2 rating on WKBW-TV (30.8), ESPN (11.3) and ESPN2 (1.1 for the Manning cast).
The Bills’ 32-6 win over the New York Jets Nov. 19 had a 44.6 rating on Channel 4.
Nationally, CBS reports that its national 4:25 p.m. window Sunday, led by Bills-Eagles, was the most-watched NFL game of the season (excluding Thanksgiving) with 30.901 million viewers. That is over 6 million more viewers than the average of 24.691 million views for the window this season.
The network added Sunday’s late window was its most-watched in 16 years, up 32% from last year’s comparable window.
The NFL on CBS is having its most-watched season since the league returned to the network 25 years ago.
It is averaging 19.670 million viewers through week 12, up 7% from last year.