AFC Championship Sets a 4-Year NFL High With 53.1 Million Viewers — Special Fire Country Retains 10 Million
Chiefs and fire chiefs delivered for CBS this past Sunday night.
CBS Sports‘ broadcast of Kansas City’s AFC Championship Game win over Cincinnati averaged 53.124 million viewers per Nielsen finals, up 11 percent from last year’s AFC contest to mark the most-watched NFL Conference Championship in four years and the most-watched television program on any network since the 2022 Super Bowl.
(Earlier in the day, over on Fox, the Eagles’ NFC Championship win averaged 47.5 million viewers.)
Leading out of CBS’ AFC Championship at 10:31 pm ET, a special serving of Fire Country averaged 10.1 million viewers, marking (duh) a series high but also delivering the largest Live+Same Day audience for a scripted original TV series since April 6, 2021 (when a Season 18 ep of NCIS drew 10.3 mil). The freshman hit also stands as the most-watched post-AFC Championship program to air on CBS since 2017.
Want scoop on Fire Country, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
That was a helluva game….
The numbers for Fire Country could have been even higher had CBS wrapped up their coverage of the football game a little quicker. Did we really need a 30 min postgame show?
I set my DVR to record for a full 2 hours after the scheduled end time of the game to make sure I got the whole FC episode
My parents watch, so I set it 30 minutes overtime and they got the whole episode.
CBS seems to be incapable of ending sports coverage on time even when they can.
They should just ad an extra amount of time to the guide. I’ve never seen a football game on any network end before or at the time on the guide even without overtime.
I agree. Get the postgame done in 10.
That was an amazing game, and good for Fire Country. I haven’t watched that show yet, but network needs hits. I’m glad it’s found one in this.
I got to see the first 26 minutes of Fire Country. Thanks Hulu + Live TV and your goofy DVR.