Giants/Packers Battle on Fox Scores Most-Watched Divisional Game Ever

Sunday's highly-anticipated New York Giants and Green Bay Packers battle for a spot in the NFC Championship Game was one for the record-books, scoring FOX the most-watched Divisional Playoff Game ever on any network, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Over 45.1 million fans tuned in as Eli Manning led the Giants past the defending Super Bowl champion Packers, securing them a trip to San Francisco to face the 49ers for the NFC crown. In addition to being the most-watched Divisional Playoff Game ever, the 25.3/42 fast-national household rating/share makes it the highest-rated Divisional Playoff Game on any network since 1997's Cowboys/Panthers game on FOX (27.6/49).

The rating for Sunday's late-window playoff game is +32% better than last year's 19.1/39 (32.5 million viewers) for Seahawks-Bears on FOX and +5% better than last year's late-window 24.2/42 (43.5 million) for Jets-Patriots on CBS. It's also the most-watched broadcast of any kind since Super Bowl XLV in February.

Sunday's game opened with a 21.8/40 and 37.3 million viewers at the 4:39 PM ET kick-off and grew steadily throughout the broadcast peaking to a 27.5/44 rating/share and averaging 49.9 million viewers from 7:00 - 7:30 PM ET as the Giants took a commanding lead in the fourth quarter.

Through three telecasts, the 2012 NFC PLAYOFFS on FOX are averaging 21.2/39 (36.5 million viewers), +9% better than last year's 19.4/35 (34.2 million viewers). This season's NFL on FOX playoff coverage ranks as the network's highest-rated since 1997 (21.5/44) and most-watched ever according to Nielsen Media Research.

Milwaukee led all markets with a 53.3/76. New York averaged a 33.4/53, the highest-rating ever in the Big Apple for an NFL Playoff Game on FOX (excluding the Super Bowl).

The top five non-home markets include Norfolk 35.6/50, Minneapolis 33.8/57, Providence 32.5/49, Chicago 31.4/51 and Las Vegas 31.0/53. The West Coast tuned in to see who the 49ers would face for the NFC crown with the San Francisco posting a 26.2/58 and Los Angeles a 22.3/44. Patriots' country was also watching with Boston notching a 27.9/44 rating/share.

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