New England Patriots, Tv Ratings | featured news

The NFL averaged 44.9 million total viewers for its two conference championship games on Sunday, which was down 16% from last year and continued a trend that has gone on all postseason.

An estimated 111.3 million people watched the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots, 21-17, Nielsen said Monday afternoon. Of course, it also means a record number of people saw rapper/singer M.I.A. flip off America during Madonna’s halftime show. NBC and the NFL are engaged in what is not yet quite a war of words — maybe a kerfuffle of words — over that incident.

Take pro football out of the mix, and NBC's ratings problems are glaring.The NFL's Sunday night shootout between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers was seen by nearly 21.2 million people on NBC, the only prime-time program to top 20 million viewers last week, the Nielsen Co. said.

NBC is poised to claim another Sunday primetime ratings victory with its big "Sunday Night Football" matchup between Indianapolis and New England, but ABC held up well as its core shows, including "Desperate Housewives," came in above average.