UPDATED TV Ratings: 2nd Biggest Ever NFC Championship Brings Fox Monster Ratings

Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for Fox (NFC Championship) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.

Scoreboard
Adults 18-49: Rating/Share	17.6/41	1.9/4	1.3/3	0.9/2	0.6/1
Adults 18-34: Rating/Share	15.1/40	1.3/4	0.9/2	1.0/3	0.4/1
Total Viewers (million)	47.89	6.42	6.40	2.48	3.78

Update: In time zone adjusted ratings (likely very close to the finals) the NFC Championship Game delivered a 21.3 adults 18-49 rating beating the 2008 NFC Championship Game by 3%, and averaged 57.9 million viewers, which would be the second best NFC Championship average viewership of all time, behind only 1982's Dallas/San Francisco ("The Catch") matchup that produced a 68.7 million average.

The football gods smiled on Fox Sunday, as an exciting NFC Championship Game went into overtime and produced a preliminary 19.0 adults 18-49 rating / 43 share and a 52 million viewer average from 7-10:30pm. The game actually ran from 6:46-10:27pm, and we expect more accurate time-zone adjusted numbers later today.

For historical reference, Favre's last NFC Championship with the Packers averaged 53.9 million viewers (the most since 1995). The most viewers ever for an NFC Championship was the January 1982 San Francisco/Dallas matchup (which featured "The Catch") which averaged 68.7 million. Last year, the NFC Championship (Arizona/Philadelphia) was the early game and averaged 38.4 million viewers, the AFC Championship (Steelers/Ravens) was the late game that went into primetime and averaged 40.6 million.

Here's some more  historical perspective for the old folks, by my very rough calculation, the game averaged about a 40 household share, meaning that 40 percent of households using TVs were tuned to the game. Almost 20 regular TV shows from the 1959-60 season averaged that household share or better. Ah, the days of limited TV choice.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the repeat and afterthought broadcast competition attracted little attention. ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's 2 hour episode averaged a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating, down 25% from its last original telecast on 1/10/10.

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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

Definitions:

Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.

Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.

For more information see Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.