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Eagles draw huge ratings in dramatic win over Bears on NBC

The Eagles and Bears drew a massive rating for their historic Wild Card matchup, which ended with a winning field goal doinking off the upright.

Fans, at Phily Diner Sports Bar in Runnemede, N.J., celebrate the Eagles' victory over the Bears on Jan. 6, 2019.
Fans, at Phily Diner Sports Bar in Runnemede, N.J., celebrate the Eagles' victory over the Bears on Jan. 6, 2019.Read moreELIZABETH rOBERTSON, --- Elizabeth Robertson / Staff photographer

The Eagles not only beat the Chicago Bears Sunday night, they also blew the Golden Globes out of the water.

The Eagles' nail-biting 16-15 win over the Bears in the second NFC Wild Card game drew a 22.9 overnight rating on NBC, which equates to roughly 25.25 million households (the number doesn’t include streaming numbers, which will be released later Monday).

It’s the best overnight rating for any playoff game NBC has aired outside the Super Bowl since taking over Sunday Night Football in 2006, the network said in a statement. The game was up 12 percent from the same broadcast window last season, when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Carolina Panthers, 31-26, on FOX (20.4 overnight rating).

The close game — decided by a partially tipped missed field goal by Bears kicker Cody Parkey — was also the highest-rated Wild Card game to air on NBC in 25 years, dating back to when John Elway led the Denver Broncos to victory over the Los Angeles Raiders in the first round of the playoffs in 1994 (23.3 overnight rating).

Not surprisingly, the overnight rating peaked at 27.6 from 7:45 to 8 p.m., as Parkey’s potentially game-winning field goal doinked off the uprights and fell into the end zone.

On NBC10, the game drew a massive 44.6 household rating (roughly 1.26 million households in the Philadelphia market), topping last year’s NFC divisional game win against the Atlanta Falcons on NBC.

Next Sunday, the Eagles will face off against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at 4:40 p.m. on FOX. Kevin Burkard and Charles Davis — the voice of Madden — will have the call, with Pam Oliver handling sideline reporting duties.

Ratings were up across the NFL for the first round of the playoffs. On Saturday, the Dallas Cowboys' 24-22 win over the Seattle Seahawks drew about 30 million total viewers across FOX, FOX Deportes, and the FOX Sports app, according to the network. The game was up 30 percent over the same playoff window (Falcons-Rams on NBC) last year.

The early game on Saturday — the Indianapolis Colts' 21-7 win over the Houston Texans — averaged about 22.8 million viewers on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN Deportes, a 3-percent bump over the same playoff window (Titans-Chiefs on ESPN) last year.

The Los Angeles Chargers' 23-17 win over the Baltimore Ravens in Sunday’s AFC Wild Card game drew a 17.8 overnight rating on CBS, up two percent from last year’s Bills-Jaguars match-up. Despite the slight bump compared to last year, it was the second-lowest early Sunday window playoff game since 2009, according to Awful Announcing’s Andrew Bucholtz.

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