By Joe Reedy, Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP)–The NFL averaged 21.0 million viewers per game during the league’s opening week, making it the most-watched Week 1 on record.
The league and Nielsen said Wednesday morning that the per-game average on TV and digital platforms was a 12% increase over last year.
All told, 123 million people saw at least part of one game, its highest total for an opening week since 2019.
“A great start with the viewership. It was great to be back and a lot to be excited about,” said Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media.
NBC had the most-watched game, with defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City’s 27-20 victory over Baltimore in last Thursday’s opener averaging 29.2 million on TV and digital. It was NBC’s second-largest regular season game since 2006, when it acquired the “Sunday Night Football” package. The Sunday night game between Detroit and the Los Angeles Rams, which the Lions won 26-20 in overtime, averaged 22.7 million, a 3% jump from last year.
Tom Brady’s first game as Fox’s top analyst โ Dallas’ 33-17 win over Cleveland โ averaged 23.93 million. The six games that were part of Fox’s doubleheader (four early, two late) averaged 18.64 million, making it the network’s best start since 2020.
This was the first time since 2020 that Fox solely had the Sunday afternoon doubleheader in Week 1. Both CBS and Fox carried two games apiece on the opening Sunday the past three seasons.
CBS averaged 17.79 million for its six games, its most watched Week 1 singleheader since it reacquired NFL rights in 1998. Most of CBS’ affiliates had games in the 1 p.m. EDT window, but New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh got Jim Harbaugh’s first game as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers against the Las Vegas Raiders at 4:05 p.m. EDT.
New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh could not air games in CBS’ early window because it is a league rule that no game is shown opposite the game of the local team.
Philadelphia’s 34-29 victory over Green Bay in the NFL’s first Friday night Week 1 game in 54 years averaged 14.0 million on Peacock and NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, Green Bay and Milwaukee. It was the second-most watched live event in Peacock’s four-year history, behind last season’s AFC wild card round game between Kansas City and Miami.
“I think the numbers even exceeded our expectations. Brazil was great and the game was an exciting one,” Schroeder said. “On a new night and window, I think that was a phenomenal start for us.”
“Monday Night Football” on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ averaged 20.4 million for San Francisco’s 32-19 win over the New York Jets despite most DirecTV customers not being able to receive it due to its carriage dispute with Disney (the only way they could watch it is if their ABC affiliate was not owned by Disney, which was not the case for DirecTV customers in New York and San Francisco).
The average was down from the 22.7 million for last year’s opener between the Jets and Buffalo.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults โ two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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