The Eagles-49ers drew a huge audience on Fox, setting up for a terrific Super Bowl
The NFC and AFC title games combined for the most-watched NFL championship round in four years.
Despite the NFC championship game being a one-sided rout featuring a team without a quarterback, the Eagles’ victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday drew a huge audience for Fox.
The broadcast averaged 47.5 million viewers, the network announced Tuesday. That’s two million viewers more than Fox’s Cowboys-49ers divisional-round game, which featured the drawing power of a good Dallas team.
Eagles-49ers likely would have drawn an even bigger number had it not been such a one-sided rout in the second half, with both 49ers quarterbacks injured and unable to throw. The audience peaked at 52.3 million viewers from 5:15 to 5:30 p.m., according to Fox.
By comparison, the AFC championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals — decided by a winning field goal with just seconds remaining on the clock — averaged 53.1 million viewers on CBS, the network announced. That makes it the most-watched NFL conference championship game since 2019, when Patriots-Chiefs averaged 53.9 million viewers on CBS in primetime, according to Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp.
Combined, the two games posted a nine-year high in viewers, according to Fox executive vice president Mike Mulvihill.
“Great momentum coming into a Super Bowl matchup of No. 1 seeds,” Mulvihill said.
Fox will broadcast Super Bowl LVII from State Farm Arena in Arizona on Feb. 12. Calling the game will be the same crew who were in the booth for Eagles-49ers: play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and former Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen. It will be the duo’s first Super Bowl after they replaced Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who left Fox after two decades to join ESPN’s Monday Night Football.