The Kansas City Chiefs have been a huge ratings powerhouse in ºüÀêÊÓƵ this season, often recently accounting for the most-watched program of the week on local television.
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So it was a bit surprising that they drew their second-worst rating of the season last weekend for a game shown under “normal†circumstances, as they played in prim time in a contest with the outcome in question through the final play. Plus, on hand was pop culture icon Taylor Swift, who is dating KC tight end Travis Kelce and has helped drive TV viewership of games she has been to this season.
The Chiefs’ 27-19 loss to Green Bay on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football†game (KSDK, Channel 5 locally) was seen in 13.1% of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ market, according to ratings-tracking company Nielsen. Excluding a game in Germany that started at 8:30 a.m. ºüÀêÊÓƵ time and one that was exclusively streamed on Amazon, the only lower KC rating locally was 10.8, for a noon game against Jacksonville on Sept. 17.
The financial dispute between Tegna and DirecTV that has led to Tegna-owned stations, including KSDK, to be pulled from DirecTV, DirecTV stream and U-Verse likely was a factor in the dip. But those services account for only a small percentage of options in this market to view programming, certainly not accounting for about a 25% smaller audience than some recent Chiefs games had drawn.
Before Sunday, the last three Chiefs games other than the one in Germany had a rating above 17. Still, the figure for the Green Bay game is a huge number. In contrast, the best ºüÀêÊÓƵ rating this season for the Mizzou football team, which has numerous standout players from the area and is headed to its best bowl game in more than half a century (vs. Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl), is 11.9.
The Chiefs have a marquee matchup this weekend as they entertain the Bills at 3:25 p.m. Sunday. CBS (KMOV, Channel 4 locally) sends its lead NFL crew to Arrowhead Stadium. It is fronted by Jim Nantz (play by play), Tony Romo (analysis) and Tracy Wolfson (reporter).