# NFL Ratings Plummet Entering The Post Season

Published 2018-01-11 · Updated 2026-03-12 · Sports & Entertainment on MarketScale
Canonical: https://www.marketscale.com/industries/sports-entertainment/nfl-ratings-plummet-entering-post-season

> After a nightmare season that saw TV viewership fall a record 9.7 percent, more fans passed on watching the first round of the NFL playoffs last weekend. Overnight ratings for the four Wild Card games fell by an average of 13 percent — with one game off a whopping 21 percent, according to Nielsen. NFL…

After a nightmare season that saw TV viewership fall a record 9.7 percent, more fans passed on watching the first round of the NFL playoffs last weekend. Overnight ratings for the four Wild Card games fell by an average of 13 percent — with one game off a whopping 21 percent, according to Nielsen. NFL broadcasters have been devoting about a fifth of their in-game ad time to making their advertisers whole, providing additional ad time to meet the preseason ratings targets they negotiated with their advertisers. Even Goodell, speaking to reporters before Sunday’s Bills-Jaguars matchup, admitted, We always want ratings to go up but then he mentioned the NFL accounted for 37 of last year’s top 50 TV shows.

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