The ratings are in for 2012, and the NFL dominated American viewership. According to the Nielsen Company, games played in the regular season were watched in 80 percent of United States households, and reached 69 percent of potential American viewers.
NFL games also accounted for 31 of the 32 most watched single-episode programs from September to December. And for the first time since the Nielsen television ratings began in 1950, an NFL game was the most watched program all 17 weeks of the regular season, and finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the rankings 15 of the 17 weeks.
While the four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) averaged 7.6 million daily household viewers during primetime hours, games on CBS and FOX averaged 19.3 million household viewers, a figure that has nearly tripled in the ...