Getty Jimmy Garoppolo (middle) fakes the handoff to Brandon Aiyuk and hands it to Elijah Mitchell during the 49ers' road win at Green Bay on Saturday, January 22.
For more than three hours and 20 minutes, both the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers provided high-intense theatrics on Saturday, January 22 in front of a worldwide audience.
There was the Packers striking first, a critical turnover from the 49ers while in striking distance before halftime, San Francisco’s defense doing all they can to keep this game from slipping away and finally, the final boot that sent the ‘Niners into the NFC championship game.
ALL the latest 49ers news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on 49ers newsletter here!
Not only was San Francisco’s 13-10 road win over the NFC’s top seed pulsating, but it became record breaking.
The Record the 49ers & Packers Shattered
Both teams topped a previous near-three decade mark for a Saturday evening program on television.
Per Michael Mulvihill of Fox Sports, the 49ers-Packers became the most watched TV show for a Saturday night in 28 years and shattered a previous record held by the Winter Olympics.
“With 36.9 million viewers, Saturday night’s Niners-Packers game on FOX is TV’s most-watched Saturday show in 28 years, dating back to the 1994 Lillehammer (Norway) Olympics,” Mulvihill tweeted on the morning of Tuesday, January 25.
The game became one of three playoff games that came down to a final field goal to win the game — joining the Cincinnati Bengals over the Tennessee Titans and the Los Angeles Rams over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
SH💰💰TERS SH💰💰T
📺: AFC Championship Game – 1/30 on CBS
MATT GAY FOR THE WIN!
But was the 49ers versus Packers the most watched NFL playoff game from the weekend of January 22?
Most Watched Belong to Another Climactic Contest
In a weekend most NFL fans will likely never forget, there was one game that had an exhilarating back-and-forth in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter and needed overtime to finally decide the winner.
That edge-of-the-seat contest was in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, and became the most watched NFL game of the weekend.
The 42-36 overtime victory by the Kansas City Chiefs over the Buffalo Bills drew in more viewers per Austin Karp of the Sports Business Journal:
Chiefs-Bills thriller got 42.7 million viewers on CBS. Best NFL Divisional Playoff game in 5 years.
Peaked at 51.7 million during great ending
Meanwhile, the Bengals-Titans contest managed to draw 38.359 million viewers.
What’s the Early Prediction for Viewers on Championship Sunday?
In a Tuesday conversation with The Athletic, Sports Business reporter Daniel Kaplan mentioned how the weekend’s viewing numbers benefitted small market cities immensely.
“When comparing the NFL to the other major sports leagues, you really are talking about a completely different paradigm,” Kaplan began. “Green Bay, Kansas City, Nashville, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, all small markets, all delivering mega TV ratings. It is hard at this point to envision an NFL playoff game disappointing with the TV rating: Football is truly a national, not a local, sport.”
He offered up this early prediction: 50 million viewers for both 49ers at Rams and Bengals at Chiefs.
“The conference championships are not the matchups anyone was expecting, but that doesn’t matter in terms of TV ratings,” Kaplan said. “With a chance to go to the Super Bowl on the line, and prime time viewing hours on Sunday, I would be hard-pressed to see either game falling below a 45-to-50 million range of viewers. Chances are the audiences will top 50 million per game.”