Ratings Report for Week 17, Next Week is going to be quite interesting...

I don't think I need to tell you why I assert the ratings could be interesting this week, but the weekly from Sports Media Watch for last week:

• Sunday Single (multiple lead games on FOX):  22 million viewers, 10.75 in-home ratings -- up 7% ratings, 17% viewers.
• Sunday National (Vikings-Packers on CBS):  24.62 million on a 12 rating -- down 12% ratings, 8% viewers from a Cowboys game in the same window on FOX, but it is (even with the playoff implications of a season-ending Week 17 until before last year) the best Week 17 window CBS has had in a decade.
• Sunday Regional (About half the country on Patriots-Dolphins on CBS):  7.45 rating, 14.58 million viewers.  Down 7% ratings, 2% viewers.
• Sunday Night (Ravens-Steelers on NBC):  8.9 rating, 17.18 million, down 10% ratings, 7% viewers.
• Thursday Night (Cowboys-Titans):  Neither the Cowboys nor an important matchup could help Amazon:  4.5 rating in the locals, 9.73 million viewers -- eighth out of the 15 Amazon broadcasts.
• Parenthetically speaking, almost 25 million tuned into coverage of the Damar Hamlin incident, and 9 million stayed through Scott van Pelt's SportsCenter afterward.

Some NFL notes in general from the website and Dr. Jon Lewis, who does the writing for it:

• CBS is enjoying it's best year in seven -- their weekly average is 18.50 million.
• 45 of the 50 most-watched sports programs in 2022 were NFL.  The only other five, four of them were football-related:  The CFP semifinals and finals (title game was #33, semis were #35 and #38), plus the Olympic coverage coming out of the Super Bowl (#34).  The only one of the top 50 most-watched which had no merit on American football:  The World Cup final (#36).
• Outside of that (and US-England), the three highest-watched sporting events were:  Third place was Game 6 of the NBA Finals.  Second was the Kentucky Derby.  First place was the NCAA Final Four, but it was the North Carolina-Duke semifinal.

I do think we are looking at the possibility of some very interesting numbers for next week and going forward into the playoffs (barring more disasters, which 2023 seems to be full of already).  How many people at least take a break from the NFL and football, after the Damar Hamlin situation?  We will see.