FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The Patriots' 31-27 win over the Packers on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" on Dec. 19 drew the third-highest regular season local ratings in franchise history with a 42.62 household rating in the Boston market. Over one million people tuned in to WHDH-TV Channel 7 in the local market to watch New England improve to 12-2 on the season.
The Patriots-Packers game was the highest-rated game of the season in the local market, topping the Patriots' Dec. 6 victory over the Jets, which had previously set the mark for the third-highest regular season local ratings in history.
Sunday night's game is only surpassed by New England's Dec. 29, 2007 win over the New York Giants that completed the only 16-0 regular season in NFL history and a Dec. 7, 2003 victory over the Dolphins. The Dec. 29, 2007 Patriots-Giants game earned a 50.1 HH rating in the Boston market, a rating that represents an unprecedented four-way telecast in which the game was seen in Boston on NFL Network, WBZ-TV Channel 4 (CBS), WCVB-TV Channel 5 (ABC) and WHDH-TV Channel 7 (NBC).
The Patriots continued their record-setting pace for HH ratings through 15 weeks in their designated market area with an average 34.7 HH rating. In addition, four of New England's past five games now rank in the top six all-time for regular season HH ratings in the Boston market with the Patriots-Packers game ranking third, the Patriots-Jets Monday night game on Dec. 6 ranking fourth with a 42.20 HH rating, the Patriots-Colts Nov. 21 game ranking fifth with a 42.04 HH rating, and the Patriots-Bears Dec. 12 game ranking sixth with a 41.29 HH rating.
Nationally, the battle between the Patriots and Packers registered a 14.0 HH rating with 24.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched Sunday night primetime show.
This season, the Patriots have also been part of two record-setting NFL broadcasts. New England's 23-20 overtime victory over Baltimore on Sunday, Oct. 17 helped CBS set the mark for the highest rating for its single-game window since it acquired the current AFC package in 1998. The Patriots-Jets game on Sunday, Sept. 19 was the most-watched September CBS game ever.
This week, the Patriots travel to Buffalo to face the AFC East rival Bills on Sunday, Dec. 26. The game will be broadcast to a local CBS audience with Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots calling the game. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET. and will air locally on WBZ in Boston and WPRI in Providence.
