For the third week in a row, the Panthers have 500k reasons to smile

[jtnc]

For the third week in a row, the Carolina Panthers attracted more than 500,000 viewers in the Charlotte area's TV audience with Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay. In other words, the Panthers, based on Nielsen Media Research estimates of 2.8 million viewers in the region, have hovered near 20 percent of all possible viewers of late, figures any show would be thrilled to post.

An eight-game winning streak and the higher levels of TV use during the fall have strengthened an already-popular product: hometown pro football. The NFL and its teams lead local and national Nielsen ratings throughout the football season and rank among the top shows, sports and otherwise, year after year.

Panthers-Buccaneers, shown Sunday afternoon on local Fox affiliate WJZY, was watched by 504,920 people, almost dead-even with the 507,200 who tuned in for Carolina’s game in Miami a week earlier. Monday Night Football, shown on ESPN and ABC affiliate WSOC, accounted for the most viewers of a Panthers’ game, with 656,320 people watching that Nov. 18 match-up against the New England Patriots.

Next week, Carolina could set a new TV benchmark: The Panthers face the New Orleans Saints, the first-place team in the the NFC South, on Sunday Night Football. WCNC will air the game as the local NBC affiliate. Originally, the game was set for a 1 p.m. kickoff on Fox, but NBC, the lone network with the option of switching games, exercised its flexible scheduling and moved the game to prime time.

For anyone who watched the endlessly entertaining Iron Bowl won by Auburn over Alabama on Saturday, it will come as little to no surprise that the college game generated a larger and larger audience while coming to a boil in the fourth quarter. CBS affiliate WBTV, according to Nielsen, drew an audience of 243,230 for the showdown between the No. 4 and No. 1 teams. To put that in perspective, Auburn-Bama eclipsed WCNC’s Sunday night NFL game (207,410), a rarity in Charlotte. Then again, NBC was stuck with a relative clunker between the struggling New York Giants and the worse-off Washington Redskins.

Other games of note: No turkeys for WBTV on Thanksgiving as the Dallas Cowboys, paired against the Oakland Raiders, attracted a Panthers-sized local TV audience of 405,840, while Green Bay-Detroit (285,220 on WJZY) and Pittsburgh-Baltimore (244,510 on WCNC) enjoyed strong numbers, too. By way of comparison, Carolina’s TV viewership earlier this season hovered between 300,000 and 400,000 viewers, but jumped with the winning streak.

Among college games, the South Carolina-Clemson rivalry generated heavy interest here, with 197,890 people watching on ESPN2 Saturday night. Other games of regional interest — Duke-North Carolina on ESPN2 (72,680 viewers) and Georgia-Georgia Tech on WSOC (49,000) — failed to attract audiences similar to the Auburn and South Carolina games

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[QueensKing]

The bandwagon is real!

[Growl]

hahahahahaha duke-unc i mean do those teams even have a football program

[Growl]

In all seriousness I'd love to see Duke upset Florida state. the florida state fans ive met are terribly unlearned folk.

that hahahahahahahaha is reserved exclusively for the football graveyard that is UNC

[jtnc]

Cam is making Big Cat big money.

[CPcavedweller]

In all seriousness I'd love to see Duke upset Florida state. the florida state fans ive met are terribly unlearned folk.

that hahahahahahahaha is reserved exclusively for the football graveyard that is UNC

Unfortunately it won't happen. I expect a game much like when Alabama traveled to Duke a few years back and paid the hammer. I'll be predicting 56-14.

[Kettle]

The riverboat is real!

Fify

[Servant of Cthululelei]

In all seriousness I'd love to see Duke upset Florida state. the florida state fans ive met are terribly unlearned folk.

that hahahahahahahaha is reserved exclusively for the football graveyard that is UNC

 

 

As an NC State fan, let's just say I'm even more grateful that the Panthers are doing so well this year due to that crazy circumstance that caused the Wolfpack football season to be cancelled.

[xclr82xtc]

bandwagon fever!

[PantherPhann89]

No wonder the Big Cat said that Cam would be the last QB he'd draft in his lifetime...