Unsurprisingly the winner-takes-the-NFC-East-Crown showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins next Sunday has been flexed into the final regular season Sunday Night Football match-up.
For those unaware, Fox and CBS can protect games during most of the flex-period, but in the final week of the season they can't protect games. Still, it is the NFL, not NBC who makes the final decision for the last week of the season. NBC naturally lobbied to have the winner-takes-all game featuring the Cowboys (ratings gold) vs. their primary rival. And of course Fox lobbied to keep The Game. In week 17 it is the NFL that must walk the fine line of keeping all their partners happy. Sadly for Fox, it was a "hey, you signed up for this deal" situation.
As a D.C. native who now lives on the west coast, I couldn't be happier.
Via the NFL:
WEEK 17 FLEX SCHEDULING:
COWBOYS-REDSKINS TO BE NBC Sunday Night Football GAME ON DEC. 30;
DOLPHINS-PATRIOTS MOVES TO 4:25 PM ET ON CBS;
PACKERS-VIKINGS TO 4:25 PM ET ON FOX
The Week 17 Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins game on Sunday, December 30 will be played at 8:20 PM ET on NBC, the Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots game will move to 4:25 PM ET on CBS and the Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings game will move to 4:25 PM ET on FOX, the NFL announced today.
Most markets will see four Sunday afternoon games (two on CBS and two on FOX) plus the NBC Sunday night game with the NFL’s Week 17 double doubleheader schedule, which was introduced in 2006.
Following is the Week 17 NFL schedule (asterisk and bold/italics represents changed game time):
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30 (WEEK 17)
|
TAMPA BAY AT ATLANTA |
1:00 PM (ET) |
FOX |
|
N.Y. JETS AT BUFFALO |
1:00 PM (ET) |
CBS |
|
BALTIMORE AT CINCINNATI |
1:00 PM (ET) |
CBS |
|
CHICAGO AT DETROIT |
1:00 PM (ET) |
FOX |
|
HOUSTON AT INDIANAPOLIS |
1:00 PM (ET) |
CBS |
|
CAROLINA AT NEW ORLEANS |
12:00 PM (CT) |
FOX |
|
PHILADELPHIA AT N.Y. GIANTS |
1:00 PM (ET) |
FOX |
|
CLEVELAND AT PITTSBURGH |
1:00 PM (ET) |
CBS |
|
JACKSONVILLE AT TENNESSEE |
12:00 PM (CT) |
CBS |
|
KANSAS CITY AT DENVER |
2:25 PM (MT) |
CBS |
|
GREEN BAY AT MINNESOTA* |
3:25 PM (CT) |
FOX |
|
MIAMI AT NEW ENGLAND* |
4:25 PM (ET) |
CBS |
|
OAKLAND AT SAN DIEGO |
1:25 PM (PT) |
CBS |
|
ARIZONA AT SAN FRANCISCO |
1:25 PM (PT) |
FOX |
|
ST. LOUIS AT SEATTLE |
1:25 PM (PT) |
FOX |
|
Dallas AT WASHINGTON* |
8:20 PM (ET) |
NBC |
The NFL utilizes “flexible scheduling” on Sundays in Weeks 11-17 to ensure quality matchups in all NFL Sunday time slots.
NBC averages 20-24 mill a game for the sunday night. I’ll call 30 mill for this game.
LETS GO SKINS!!!
Word on the street is FOX whined, cried and begged to keep the game. NFL wasn’t buying it. Flex fight score: NBC:2/3 CBS: 1/2 FOX: 0/2
the nfl would have been dumb to keep this with fox. its the final game of the regular season. its going to be huge.
“the nfl would have been dumb to keep this with fox. its the final game of the regular season. its going to be huge.”
By that token, all games this week are “the final game of the regular season”.
The viewership in the late afternoon window on Fox would likely have been as good or better than what NBC gets.
That said, the process that allows games to be moved is what Fox signed up for. At $1 billion a year.
Americas Team rules.
“Americas Team rules.”
At least in the ratings.
America’s team gets clobbered by America’s capital.
Bill, I doubt that a late afternoon game would get more total viewers than the last SNF game.
Well, then again, Fox already got a late afternoon game between the Cowboys and Redskins that was nationally televised (on Thanksgiving), so the NFL probably wasn’t shy about putting this one on SNF.
Go DALLAS!!!
“Bill, I doubt that a late afternoon game would get more total viewers than the last SNF game.”
That’s because you don’t understand how many viewers those late afternoon games can get.
The final SNF game last season Cowboys/Giants (which is just about the best ratings match up the NFL can get) drew a SNF record 27.6 million viewers.
Yet four late afternoon games during last season topped that and many others came close.
1. CBS Thanksgiving (Dolphins-Cowboys), 11/24 31.0 million
3. FOX Thanksgiving (Packers-Lions), 11/6 30.2 million
3. FOX Sunday National (mostly Packers-Giants), 12/4 29.8 million
3. CBS Sunday National (mostly Patriots-Broncos), 12/18 28.2 million
5. CBS’ Two and a Half Men (Season Premiere), 9/19 28.7 million
6. FOX Sunday National (mostly Cowboys-Patriots), 10/16 28.4 million
7. FOX Sunday National (mostly Giants-Patriots), 11/6 28.2 million
8. NBC Sunday Night Football (Cowboys-Giants), 1/1/12 27.6 million
9. NBC Thursday Night Kickoff Game (Saints-Packers), 9/8 27.1 million
10. CBS Sunday National (mostly Chiefs-Broncos), 1/1/12 27.0 million
11. CBS Sunday National (mostly Patriots-Eagles), 11/27 26.2 million
12. FOX Sunday National (mostly Giants-49ers), 11/13 25.9 million
13. FOX Sunday National (mostly Giants-Redskins), 9/11 25.8 million
14. NBC Sunday Night Football (Cowboys-Jets), 9/11 25.8 million
15. FOX World Series Game 7 (Rangers-Cardinals), 10/28 25.4 million
16. CBS Sunday National (mostly Patriots-Steelers), 10/30 24.6 million
17. NBC Sunday Night Football (Giants-Cowboys), 12/11 24.5 million
18. FOX Sunday National (mostly Packers-Vikings), 10/23 24.3 million
19. NBC Sunday Night Football (Bears-Packers), 12/25 24.0 million
20. FOX Sunday National (mostly Packers-Bears), 9/25 24.0 million
21. NBC Sunday Night Football (Eagles-Falcons), 9/18 23.4 million
21. FOX Sunday Single (mostly Redskins-Giants), 12/18 23.4 million
23. FOX Sunday Single (mostly Lions-Cowboys), 10/2 23.3 million
24. CBS Sunday National (mostly Packers-Broncos), 10/2 23.0 million
25. NBC Sunday Night Football (Cowboys-Eagles), 10/30 23.0 million
Why would you not believe that people can sit down at 4:30 and watch a game? People are off work and out of church (if they go) so it isn’t that hard to believe. Hell, people would skip church and anything else if the game came on 11:00 in the morning because unlike a lot other sports, they don’t play too many games. We have also seen enough of the ratings that spill into the 7:00 block that shows that they can get monster ratings.
Cowboys-Redskins is ratings gold. I think there will be as many Cowboys haters tuning-in as Cowboys fans.
@ Bill: Key part is the mostly. Out of that 29.8 million, how many watched the packers-giants? I still stand-by what I wrote.
@ David: Re-read what I wrote. Then, try again.
Lets do this, Skins!!!
@robert didnt know u were from DC
The NFL has historically always selected the game with the most impact on playoff positioning for primetime. That it happened to be Cowboys/Redskins this year was incidental. Remember a couple years ago when the NFL selected 6-9 Seattle vs. 7-8 St Louis as their primetime game, because it was for a division title?
From the NFL’s standpoint, Skins/Boys was the only game of the 16 with a guaranteed impact on playoff positioning, so it was an easy choice even before demographics.
“The NFL has historically always selected the game with the most impact on playoff positioning for primetime. That it happened to be Cowboys/Redskins this year was incidental.”
One man’s “incidental”, is another man’s “extremely fortunate for NBC”.
“@ Bill: Key part is the mostly. Out of that 29.8 million, how many watched the packers-giants? I still stand-by what I wrote.”
Typical lawyer weaseling.
The telecasts got the viewership indicated for each network, the number of games that were split between the country to get that viewership is irrelevant to the network.
Your contention that the final SNF game with playoff implications would always have a better viewership than a late national window game is plainly not true.
I will hold my breath, but will not expect a win. The Cowboys are destined to crush my heart as usual in this game.