Chiefs-Bengals Scores Largest NFL Week 2 Audience On CBS As Season Kicks Off With Promising Growth Across Networks

CBS came out on top in Week 2 of the NFL season, likely thanks in part to the Kansas City Chiefs, whose narrow victory over the Cincinnati Bengals drew 27.87M viewers on Sunday.

Not only was that the most-watched game of the week, it’s the largest Week 2 NFL audience in decades, up 8% versus CBS’ Week 2 audience last season. The Chiefs are on a hot streak, and they seem to be bringing audiences with them, also pushing NBC to the most-watched Week 1 matchup last week.

Earlier Sunday, CBS featured regional broadcasts of either Jets-Titans or 49ers-Vikings, which drew more modest audiences and were down double digits from last year, when the early game was a (you guessed it) Chiefs matchup in most markets.

Still, CBS is now boasting an average of 19.9M viewers for NFL coverage so far this season, up 5% from the same point last year to give them the best two-week start since 1998.

NBC wasn’t far behind, managing 20.3M viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, representing a 6% lift over last season’s Week 2 game. The broadcast audience alone was around 18M, which is still up in viewership, though just a fraction.

Through three games, NBC is posting its best start to a season since 2015, averaging 24.1M viewers.

Fox managed 18.78M viewers for its Saints-Cowboys singleheader, which marks a 11% lift year-over-year. Through Week 2, the network is up 29% to average 18.6M viewers, which is its best start since 2020.

Monday Night Football took a bit of a hit this week as it only aired on ESPN and not ABC, tallying around 15M viewers. According to the network, that’s the third most-watched non-ABC MNF telecast in more than 50 games, or four years.