Happy days are here again for the NFL’s network television partners. They gambled correctly in again saturating their national broadcasts with Cowboys games. There is nothing like a winning Cowboys team to pump ratings.
When NBC’s Sunday Night Football schedule was released and the Cowboys once more were scheduled for a maximum three dates before the Week 17 flex, I figured that was a bit much for a team coming off three consecutive 8-8 non-playoff seasons but it was business as usual.
No other non-playoff team was similarly honored.
In their first appearance, Cowboys-Saints attracted 23.1 million viewers for a lopsided Dallas victory. It ranks second in viewership after six SNF games this season. Only, the season opener that had the Indianapolis Colts with a chance to tie the Denver Broncos in the fourth quarter has scored higher at 23.7 million.
Recall that Al Michaels was talking stock futures and point spreads in the fourth quarter of Cowboys 38, Saints 17.
More surprising than NBC’s three-game Cowboys parley was Fox’s decision to have it’s “A Team” at four of the first five Cowboys games on its schedule, including Sunday’s “America’s Game of the Week” in the late-afternoon window against the limping New York Giants.
Last Sunday’s “America’s Game,” a thrashing of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks was the primary attraction in the 3:25 p.m. time slot that attracted 30 million viewers. It was the most watched NFL regular-season time slot on Fox since 1995. You know who played in that game on Nov. 12, 1995? The Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. The Cowboys lost by 18 points but went on to win their last Super Bowl.
The decision to load up the Cowboys on the Troy Aikman-Joe Buck/Thom Brennaman schedule was made before the start of the season.
Next week, the Cowboys will be back on national television when they host the Redskins. It’s ESPN’s Monday Night Football game. Pencil in that game from AT&T Stadium will top the MNF season leader in the clubhouse. That would be the 14.9 million viewers that Philadelphia 30, Indianapolis 27 drew on Sept. 15.
And so you know, when the Cowboys return to Fox on Nov. 2 when they host the Arizona Cardinals, who are currently 4-1, Aikman and the back from baseball Buck will be back on the call for the noon game.
(If you thought Buck wouldn’t miss a Cardinals game, go stand in the corner.)
That will be followed by a game a noon game in London against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. Not even the Cowboys could lift the Jaguars to national television status.
Then comes five more nationally televised time slots against the Giants (NBC), Philadelphia Eagles (Fox), Chicago Bears (NFLN), Eagles (NBC) and Colts (CBS).
The NFL and the networks planned. The Cowboys to date have produced.
