NBC SPORTS SCORES BEST PRIMETIME WILD CARD RATING EVER

Best Saturday Wild Card Rating in a Decade

Jets-Bengals Early Game Also Best in 10 Years

NEW YORK - January 10, 2010 - NBC Sports coverage of last night's Dallas Cowboys 34-14 blowout victory over the Philadelphia Eagles earned NBC the best overnight rating for a primetime Wild Card Playoff game ever and the best Saturday Wild Card playoff game in a decade. (The NFL began primetime Wild Card games in 2002). The New York Jets 24-14 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the early game was also the best Saturday Wild Card Game 1 overnight rating since the 1999 season.

PRIMETIME GAME: EAGLES-COWBOYS: The Eagles-Cowboys primetime game (8:00-11:15 p.m. ET) earned a 19.6 overnight rating and 32 share, the highest rating for a Saturday Wild Card game since the 1999 season (Cardinals-Cowboys, 20.9/38), seven percent higher than last year's Colts-Chargers overtime game (18.3/30) and 18 percent higher than the Jaguars-Steelers Wild Card game in Jan. 2008 (16.6/27). The rating peaked in the second quarter from 9-9:30 p.m. ET at a 21.6/35.

AFTERNOON GAME: JETS-BENGALS: The Jets-Bengals afternoon game (4:30-7:45 p.m. ET) drew an overnight rating of 16.9 with a 31 share, the best Saturday Wild Card Game 1 in a decade (Buffalo-Miami, 17.9/37), 18 percent higher than last year's Falcons-Cardinals game (14.3/28) and 10 percent higher than the Redskins-Seahawks Wild Card game in Jan. 2008 (15.4/29). The rating peaked in the fourth quarter at a 19.1/34 from 7-7:45 p.m. ET.

NBC Sports also scored the best two-game average overnight rating for an NFL Wild Card Saturday in a decade. NBC's Wild Card Saturday, featuring the Jets-Bengals in the afternoon and Eagles-Cowboys in primetime, averaged an 18.3/32, 12 percent higher than the 16.4/29 for last year's two-game average and a 14 percent improvement over the 16.0/28 average for the two Wild Card Saturday games in Jan. 2008 (Washington-Seattle in afternoon and Jacksonville-Pittsburgh in primetime).

During primetime (8-11 p.m.) NBC averaged a 19.8/32 dominating its competition, delivering six times the primetime average of the night's No. 2 broadcast network (Fox, 3.3/5) and easily generating two-and-a-half times the combined ABC-CBS-Fox rating.

8-11 p.m. Metered-Market Averages:
NBC, 19.8/32
Fox, 3.3/5
CBS, 2.6/4
ABC, 1.8/3

Gm. 1 - Jets-Bengals - Top 10 Markets:
1. Cincinnati, 45.0/66
2. Dayton, 31.7/49
3. New Orleans, 25.7/38
4. Columbus, 23.4/39
5. Baltimore, 22.1/38
6. Las Vegas, 21.7/38
7. Indianapolis, 21.1/34
8. Ft. Myers, 20.9/34
T9. San Diego, 20.8/41
T9. New York, 20.8/38

Gm. 2 - Eagles-Cowboys - Top 10 Markets:
1. Dallas, 44.3/65
T2. Philadelphia, 33.7/51
T2. San Antonio, 33.7/47
4. New Orleans, 31.8/44
5. Austin, 29.3/45
6. Norfolk, 28.6/42
7. Las Vegas, 26.4/40
8. San Diego, 25.5/42
9. Albuquerque, 24.9/38
10. Richmond, 24.6/37