‘Sunday Night Football’ sets ratings record

NEW YORK (AP) — America has spoken: NFL over “American Idol.”

For the seventh consecutive year, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” has topped the season’s television ratings, as measured by Nielsen. That edges the six straight years for Fox’s “American Idol” (2005-06 through 2010-11). The football games averaged 18.2 million TV viewers in 2017, a 29 percent margin over the runner-up, “Thursday Night Football” on CBS.

Fred Gaudelli, who produces the broadcasts, credits the scheduling of headline games each Sunday – NBC did not flex any contests from daytime to night time last season – as well as the NFL’s hold on sporting America.

“One of the things that has allowed ‘Sunday Night Football’ to achieve this record is that when the NFL decided to take its marquee prime-time game off Monday and put it on Sunday, they would do all in their power to make sure Sunday nights would become successful,” Gaudelli says. “The flex schedule, the marquee matchups, week in and week out.

“This is now the 13th season for ‘Sunday Night Football,’ and the NFL has maintained that commitment, and that is a major reason why people are not tired of tuning into the prime-time game after a full day of football on Sunday.

“It’s usually an outstanding attraction and there are big stars in the game ... combined with all the people who work on the show, people want to make sure they are not skipping watching the game.”

They aren’t. While all sports ratings are declining, NBC’s remain at the top for its Sunday prime-time programming.