Not only were the Texans losers on the field Sunday, they finished second-best in the day’s television ratings
The Texans’ loss to the Panthers produced an 18.7 Nielsen rating on KRIV (Channel 26), meaning it was viewed by about 436,000 of the area’s 2.33 million television households on average. The Cowboys-Saints game Sunday night turned in a 19.8 rating on KPRC (Channel 2) with an average audience of about 461,000 households.
Channel 26’s audience undoubtedly was affected by Dish Network having dropped Fox Broadcasting’s owned-and-operated stations last week as part of a retransmission rate dispute. The game also aired opposite the final Astros regular-season game, which began at 2 p.