'Sunday Night Football' ratings tick up despite Seahawks-Cardinals tie

The kneejerk reaction by many viewers was that the 6-6 tie between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football was a new low for the NFL.

But for NBC, the overnight ratings it released for the broadcast were a 22% improvement over last week. Sunday’s Seahawks-Cardinals game drew an overnight rating of 11.6, which outpaced the 9.0 yielded by Indianapolis Colts-Houston Texans game on Oct. 16.

The ratings NBC announced on Monday do not include digital viewership. Numbers for the much-anticipated return of AMC's The Walking Dead had not been announced, but NBC said the game still was tops in prime time.

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The rating for Sunday’s game was still off the Week 7 Sunday Night Football game in 2015 (Philadelphia Eagles vs. Carolina Panthers). That matchup garnered a 13.6 overnight, according to Sports Media Watch.

NFL ratings overall were down about 11% through the first six weeks of the season compared with a year ago. Sunday Night Football entered this week's game off about the same amount as the league as a whole.

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