Whenever readers ask how a game from another sport — even much-anticipated events such as a Red Sox postseason game or a Celtics or Bruins season opener, for recent examples — fared against a Patriots broadcast in the Nielsen ratings, I try to offer one particular reminder:
NFL games are so far ahead of other sports in viewership that there is really no comparison to be made at all. NFL games should be compared not with sports but with all other television programs across all networks. And even then, guess what? The NFL wins in a blowout.
The latest, but hardly the only, evidence of this came this past week when the NFL updated its viewership data through the season’s first six weeks.