POSTED: Sunday January 4th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NBC Scores Best Primetime Wild Card Rating Ever and Best Saturday Wild Card Rating Since 1999

NBC Sports also scored the best two-game average overnight rating for an NFL Wild Card Saturday in five years

       NEW YORK – January 4, 2009 – NBC Sports coverage of
Saturday night\‘s San Diego Chargers 23-17 overtime victory over the
Indianapolis Colts earned NBC the best overnight rating for primetime
Wild Card Playoff game ever and the best Saturday Wild Card playoff
game since 1999. (The NFL began primetime Wild Card games in 2002).



The Colts-Chargers game (8:15-11:45) earned an 18.3 overnight rating
and 30 share, tying it with 2003 Atlanta-Green Bay for the highest
rating for a Saturday Wild Card game since 1999 (Arizona-Dallas,
20.9/38) and 10 percent higher than last years Jacksonville-Pittsburgh
game (16.6/27).  The rating peaked during overtime at 11:30 at a
21.6/37.



NBC scored a 17.3/28 in traditional primetime (8-11 p.m. ET), 394
percent higher than Fox, the next highest network (3.5/6) and 90
percent higher than the combined delivery of Fox, CBS (2.9/5) and ABC
(2.7/4).



NBC Sports also scored the best two-game average overnight rating for
an NFL Wild Card Saturday in five years. NBC\‘s Wild Card Saturday,
featuring Atlanta-Arizona (14.3/28) in the afternoon and
Indianapolis-San Diego in primetime, averaged a 16.4 overnight rating
and 29 share – the best two-game average overnight rating for an NFL
Wild Card Saturday in five years (2005 on ABC: St. Louis-Seattle in
afternoon and NY Jets-San Diego in primetime, 16.5/28).



The 16.4 average overnight rating is also a three percent improvement
over the 16.0/28 average for the two Wild Card Saturday games last year
(Washington-Seattle in afternoon and Jacksonville-Pittsburgh in
primetime).



Gm. 1 – Falcons-Cardinals – Top 10 Markets:

1. Atlanta, 28.2/49

2. Phoenix, 25.8/48

3. Indianapolis, 21.3/36

4. Baltimore, 20.2/35

5. Portland, 19.7/34

6. St. Louis, 18.9/32

7. New Orleans, 18.4/29

8. Ft. Myers, 17.7/31

9. West Palm Beach, 17.4/29

10. Philadelphia, 17.3/31





Gm. 2 – Colts-Chargers – Top 10 Markets:

1. Indianapolis, 45.3/64

2. San Diego, 38.6/63

3. Nashville, 29.8/42

4. Baltimore, 25.1/39

5. Portland, 24.5/36

6. Ft. Myers, 22.8/35

T7. Phoenix, 21.8/36

T7. New Orleans, 21.8/31

9. Charlotte, 21.6/33

T10. Kansas City, 21.2/34

T 10. Las Vegas, 21.2/31




       Members of the media can get more information about NBC
Universal and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web
site at www.nbcumv.com.

# # #

Keywords · NBC Sports · San Diego Chargers · Indianapolis Colts · NFL

Name: Adam Freifeld
Organization: NBC
Email:
Phone: +1.212-664-6772

Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.