1/9 – Bengals/Texans Gets 15.3 Rating

Not everything is bigger in Texas, as overnight ratings dropped double-digits for Saturday’s NFL Wild Card clash between the Bengals and Texans. Saturday’s Bengals/Texans AFC Wild Card game earned a 15.3 overnight rating on NBC, down 16% from last year (NO/SEA: 18.3), and down 10% from 2010 (NYJ/CIN: 16.9). The 15.3 overnight is the lowest for the Saturday afternoon Wild Card game since 2009 (ATL/ARI: 14.3). The late game, Lions/Saints, also hit a three-year low in the overnights. Cincinnati led all markets for Saturday’s game, with a 39.7. Houston (34.9) ranked second, with New Orleans (24.8), Dayton, OH (24.5) and Baltimore (23.5) rounding out the top five. NBC averaged a 17.2 overnight rating for Wild Card Saturday, down 11% from last year (19.4), down 6% from 2010 (18.3), but the third-highest average for the Saturday games since the 1998-99 season, according to Sports Media Watch