this Buffalo-Kansas City game we're talking about is a good barometer. You put that game on ‘Sunday Night Football' and it probably does 23-25 million viewers. That's an awful lot of people who are going to be willing to stay awake Sunday night until 11:30 at night on the East Coast, hopefully after having watched the 1 o'clock window and the 4 o'clock window and maybe even the 9:30 a.m. window that day.
"You're talking about 12 hours of NFL football, that's asking a lot. So you put a game like Buffalo-Kansas City on Sunday night, that probably gives people a reason to stay and tune in and watch."
Those viewership numbers sound good, right?
But, as North noted, ratings will likely be better in the late afternoon as compared to a prime-time matchup.
"You put that game on Sunday afternoon - CBS, FOX (at) 4:25 (p.m. Eastern) - you actually probably beat that number. You probably get closer to 30 million. So is that a better use of that asset?"
North's prediction was spot-on. It was in 2024.
Buffalo's 30-21 win over the Chiefs last season had 31.2 million viewers on CBS. The Bills' website said it was the
most-watched regular season non-holiday NFL game since the Patriots-Colts meeting in Week 9 in 2007 (33.8 million).
That explains why the NFL would be inclined to leave the Chiefs-Bills matchup out of prime time.