{"id":661912,"date":"2026-01-07T19:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T19:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/661912\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T19:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T19:44:12","slug":"seattle-seahawks-domination-of-49ers-is-nfls-most-watched-week-18-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/661912\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Seahawks\u2019 domination of 49ers is NFL\u2019s most-watched Week 18 game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Seattle Seahawks\u2019 NFC West title triumph over the San Francisco 49ers may not have gotten the premier time slot on NBC\u2019s Sunday Night Football, but it was still a big hit in terms of television viewership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Last Saturday\u2019s 13-3 win was the most-watched game of the weekend, even over the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 incredible win over the Baltimore Ravens to clinch the AFC North title and the final playoff spot in the field. I\u2019d say over 27 million viewers is a smash hit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Of course, it has to be noted that this game was simulcast on ABC, ESPN, and (through the ManningCast) ESPN2, whereas the Ravens vs. Steelers was simulcast on NBC and Peacock, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/pressbox\/press-releases\/record-setting-season-as-sunday-night-football-on-nbc-and-peacock-averages-23-5-million-viewers-paces-as-primetimes-1-show-for-unprecedented-15th-consecutive-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">averaging 25.5 million viewers<\/a>. While the Seahawks-49ers was up from last year\u2019s corresponding Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game, Ravens-Steelers viewership was down from last season\u2019s \u201cGame 272\u201d battle for the No. 1 seed between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/espnpressroom.com\/us\/press-releases\/2026\/01\/espns-monday-night-football-records-second-most-watched-regular-season-in-the-companys-20-year-history-of-airing-the-iconic-franchise\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">From the ESPN PR release<\/a>, \u201cIncluding all regular season MNF and NFL on ESPN games, the NFC West showdown ranks as ESPN\u2019s third most-watched NFL game since 2006.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If Vikings vs. Lions was the big game last season and Seahawks vs. 49ers was the top-drawing game this season, I have no choice but to conclude that Sam Darnold is must-see TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Seahawks\u2019 NFC West title triumph over the San Francisco 49ers may not have gotten the premier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,718,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-661912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-seahawks","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-seattle-seahawks-news","14":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115855534683922511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}