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The Jets-Bills match-up falls 20 percent shy of last year's opener on CBS and the NFL Network.
Thursday Night Football fell victim to a steep drop in its season premiere, despite a competitive match-up between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
Nielsen gives the combined showing between CBS and the NFL Network a 11.4 overnight rating among households. That's a 20 percent drop from the comparable night last year, though it's still 25 percent better than the average showing from 2015. Last year's game, between the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs, rose to record viewership for the relatively new franchise once final tallies were in. It averaged nearly 22 million viewers.
It will likely be some time before the NFL reveals data on how many people streamed the game on Twitter. Last night marked the start of the new partnership that will stream Thursday games.
The rest of the broadcast networks had nothing new to offer in primetime, with the exception of the CW's Beauty and the Beast. That averaged a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49.
In late night, Donald Trump's appearance on The Tonight Show had no noticeable effect on ratings. Jimmy Fallon, facing stiff competition with CBS' Stephen Colbert airing after the NFL, averaged a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with Local People Meters.
TV Ratings
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