FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – America turned out for America's Game of the Week on FOX, as the Patriots defeated the Cowboys, 13-9, in a highly-anticipated, nationally-televised matchup that drew the highest regular season overnight ratings for any NFL game on any network in the last 12 years.
Neither wind nor rain could stop the Patriots, as they marched to their 10th victory of the year on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, setting a new NFL record of 17-straight years with at least 10 wins. Their gritty win also delivered the team's highest local and national ratings of the season, highest national overnight rating since 2007 and highest local rating since 2015.
Nationally, the game averaged a 19.5 overnight rating on FOX, tying for the highest regular season rating since Patriots-Colts on CBS in 2007, matching the Seahawks-Cowboys overnight numbers on FOX in 2015. The 19.5 overnight also tied with the same Seahawks-Cowboys game as the most-watched regular season NFL game on FOX since 1996. It was the most-watched event on television since the 2019 Academy Awards in February and the most watched sporting event of any kind since the Patriots earned their sixth world championship in Super Bowl LIII.
Locally, the WFXT 4:25 p.m. broadcast delivered a 42.6 household rating and 67 market share in Boston, marking the Patriots' highest local rating since the Patriots-Broncos matchup in Week 12 of the 2015 season and a 15 percent increase over last year's Week 12 matchup (Patriots at Jets, 1 p.m.). The game averaged 1,883,200 viewers and peaked at 7:15 p.m. with over two million local viewers. By comparison, the American Music Awards premiered in primetime on Sunday night and drew a 7.0 rating, 12 market share and audience of less than 300,000 in the local market.
The Patriots will travel to Houston this week to take on the Texans at NRG Stadium. The game will kick off at 8:20 p.m. on NBC's Sunday Night Football. Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth will call the game from the booth, with Michele Tafoya providing updates from the sideline. The game can be viewed locally on NBC 10 Boston.
