NEW YORK -- More than 150 million people have watched at least part of an NFL game this season, the highest number for the first four weeks of any season.
According to Nielsen, viewership is up for all four of the networks that televise NFL games. CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN are each averaging their most viewers ever to this point for their current packages.
Games are averaging 18.9 million viewers, up 9 percent from this time last year. That's more than double the average prime-time viewership of 9.2 million for the big four broadcast networks in the new TV season. The gap has grown from last year, when the NFL averaged 17.4 million to 9.3 million for prime-time programming.
A record nine game telecasts have topped the 20-million viewer mark.
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Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press*
