CBS and NFL Network’s season debut broadcast of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on Thursday, Sept. 17 featuring Denver-Kansas City was the most-watched and highest-rated TNF broadcast ever (Nielsen Live + Same Day fast national ratings).

Last night’s game was seen by an average of 21.117 million viewers, +2% from last year’s 20.777 million, and earned an average national household rating/share of 12.9/24, +2% from last year’s12.7/22 for the comparable premiere broadcast on CBS and NFL Network (Pittsburgh-Baltimore; 9/11/14).

Pittsburgh at Baltimore’s TNF season opener on CBS and NFL Network last year was the previous most-watched and highest-rated TNF game.

Primetime on CBS and NFL Network last night more than doubled the combined viewership of NBC, ABC and FOX (+101%).  CBS/NFL Network’s viewership of 19.052 million in primetime was +1292% better than FOX (1.369m), +563% better than ABC (2.875m) and +263% better than NBC (5.246m).    

Last’s night primetime on CBS and NFL Network beat the combined delivery of NBC, ABC and FOX by +84%. CBS/NFL Network’s HH rating/share of 11.6/21 in primetime beat each of the broadcast networks: +1189% better than FOX (0.9/2), +452% better than ABC (2.1/4) and +252% better than NBC (3.3/6). 

Viewer average of the game peaked at 22.912 million viewers from 9:30-10:00 PM, ET and the game HH rating/share peaked at 14.2/30 from 11:30-11:53 PM, ET.

The record viewership and rating for the 2015 season opener of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL comes on the heels of the most-watched NFL Kickoff Weekend ever with an average of 19.9 million viewers for NFL games (Sept. 10-14), topping the average 19.6 million viewers for 2013’s Kickoff Weekend.

THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL continues next week on September 24 with Washington at N.Y. Giants.

RATINGS NOTE: CBS and NFL Network are reporting audience data for the game and related programming, the way it was sold to advertisers, as a gross rating from CBS and NFL Network.

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CBS Sports Contacts:

   Jen Sabatelle     917/576-2435  jsabatelle@cbs.com

  Jerry Caraccioli  212/975-7466  gwcaraccioli@cbs.com

  Dan Sabreen       202/321-4195  dsabreen@cbs.com

NFL Network:  

Alex Riethmiller   954/599-4154  alex.riethmiller@nfl.com

Andrew Howard  310/710-6762  andrew.howard@nfl.com