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Fan fave Favre
pumps hefty NFL ratings

Packers-Vikings game averages 29.8 million viewers

By Toni Fitzgerald
Nov 3, 2009

Brett Favre may not be the league's MVP this season but he's certainly television's.

For the second time this season, Favre and his Minnesota Vikings generated record ratings for the NFL, both times coming with the squad facing the Green Bay Packers, Favre's former team and Minnesota's most bitter rival.

The Vikings-Packers game averaged 29.8 million total viewers on Fox, according to Nielsen, the second-most-watched game ever on the network behind only Dallas-San Francisco in November 1995, which averaged 32.1 million.

It averaged a 17.4 household rating and 32 share, marking the highest-rated telecast on any network since February's Academy Awards.

The end of the game, which aired in the first half hour of primetime, peaked at 39 million total viewers. And "Fox NFL Sunday, which focused heavily on Favre including an interview with Terry Bradshaw, posted its best rating since 2003.

It was the second time this season that a Favre-Packers game has broken records. Earlier this year the Packers and Vikings squared off on ESPN's "Monday Night Football," drawing nearly 22 million total viewers to become the most-watched program ever on cable.

Favre played 16 seasons for the Packers before retiring last year, only to come back just weeks before the season began. That prompted Green Bay to send him to the New York Jets, where he played a stellar first half of the season before fading in the second and retiring once again in the offseason.

This year Favre unretired once more to join the Vikings, a playoff-caliber team with the NFL's best running back, Adrian Peterson. With Favre, Minnesota has a good chance of making the Super Bowl, according to oddsmakers.

The networks have to be salivating at the prospect of Favre riding the 7-1 Vikings into the playoffs and another potential matchup with Green Bay looming.

The Packers are currently 4-3, but they have a shot at making the playoffs as a wild card team. No doubt the squad would love the chance to knock Favre out of the playoffs after going 0-2 against him this season.

Toni Fitzgerald is a staff writer for Media Life.	© 2009 Media Life Magazine

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