SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Features Patriots vs. Packers, 12/19

Tom Brady leads the New England Patriots (11-2), who are in first place in the AFC East against the Green Bay Packers (8-5) from Gillette Stadium Foxboro, Mass., on "Sunday Night Football."

Calling Packers-Patriots will be six-time Emmy Award-winner Al Michaels (play-by-play), who is in his 25^th season as the voice of the NFL's premier primetime package; 11-time Emmy Award-winner Cris Collinsworth, who last year, his first in the SNF booth, won the Emmy for outstanding event analyst; and sideline reporter Andrea Kremer about whom TV Guide said is "one of TV's best sports correspondents."

Coverage begins with "Football Night in America" at 7 p.m. ET Sunday with Bob Costas, who won the outstanding studio host Emmy last year, hosting live from inside the stadium. Dan Patrick will co-host "Football Night" from NBC's 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach and Emmy-nominated Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Harrison, and Sports Illustrated's Peter King. Alex Flanagan will report from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa., on the Jets-Steelers game.

"Football Night" (7:30-8:15 pm) is averaging 8.3 million viewers through its first 14 weeks, its most ever for that time frame and up 11 percent vs. 2009's 7.5 million viewers.

# # #

MICHAELS ON PATRIOTS: "Right now, there is nobody that doesn't think the New England Patriots are the best."

COLLINSWORTH ON PATRIOTS: "They are a clear-cut Super Bowl favorite."

HARRISON ON PATRIOTS OFFENSE: " Offensively they are playing at the top of their game right now.  Tom Brady is clearly the MVP and the Patriots are the best team in the league."

HARRISON ON PACKERS PLAYING ZONE DEFENSE: "With Green Bay playing a zone defense, this sets up perfectly for Brady.  He loves to exploit the zone.  He finds himself a lot of holes and he throws to a lot of different receivers.  He will pick that zone apart."

HARRISON ON PACKERS: "Green Bay was off just a little bit (against Detroit) and late in the season this is when you start seeing teams lose focus.  If you are Green Bay, you must win the division to get into the playoffs in the NFC."

DUNGY ON THE PATRIOTS DEFENSE: "Tom is playing great, but a lot of people are overlooking their defense.  They've shut people down the last three or four weeks.  They blanketed the Jets and shut Chicago down.  This defense is playing better than people give them credit for."

HARRISON ON PATRIOTS DEFENSE: "The strength of this defense used to be the defensive front, but you have to now look at the linebacker position and the secondary.  They're creating turnovers and they're scoring touchdowns.  That is why Bill Belichick brought these young guys in." 

# # #

REMAINING 2010 "SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" SCHEDULE

Regular Season - "Football Night in America" begins every Sunday at 7 p.m. ET

Sun. Dec. 19                *Week 15            Packers at Patriots (no change)
Sun. Dec. 26                *Week 16            Vikings-Eagles (Flex Game)
Sun. Jan. 2                   *Week 17           TBA
*Flex Week 

FLEX GAME - WEEK 16: The National Football League on Monday announced that the Minnesota Vikings at Philadelphia Eagles was selected to move to "Sunday Night Football" on NBC on Sunday, Dec. 26, as part of the NFL's flexible scheduling.

ABOUT FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING: The NFL will utilize "flexible scheduling" on Sundays in Weeks 11-17.  Flexible scheduling will ensure quality matchups in all NFL Sunday time slots in those weeks and give teams a chance to play their way onto primetime and into the late-afternoon 4:15 PM ET time slot on CBS and FOX. 

For each of the flexible scheduling weeks with the exception of Week 17, the NFL will announce the start times of games on Sundays no later than 12 days prior to that weekend.  To ensure a Sunday night game and doubleheader games with playoff implications in Week 17, the flexible scheduling decision for that Sunday may be made on six days notice.

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL VIEWERSHIP NOTES

Through the first 14 weeks of the NFL season, "Sunday Night Football" is averaging 21.7 million viewers, two million more than last year through this point of the season (19.7 million). 

SNF AVERAGE VIEWERSHIP THROUGH 10 WEEKS:

1. 2010, 21.7 million
2. 2009, 19.7 million
3. 2006, 17.5 million
4. 2007, 16.2 million
5. 2008, 16.1 million

The 14-week average household rating of 13.0/21 is nine-percent higher than last year's 11.9/19 and 31 percent ahead of 2008 (9.9/16) through the same point in the season.

DEFEATED ALL SUNDAY NIGHT COMPETITION: The "Sunday Night Football" broadcast defeated all Sunday Night competition for the 14^th time in 14 weeks, on a night that included such original competition as CBS's 60 Minutes, with a feature on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the season finale of Amazing Race, Undercover Boss and CSI: Miami, Fox's Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad and ABC's Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.

SNF IS 14 FOR 14: With 25.7 million viewers, "Sunday Night Football" was the most-watched primetime show on Sunday night for the 14^th straight week this season (100 percent).  Last season, SNF was the most-watched Sunday night primetime broadcast in a record 15 of 16 (94 percent) weeks. In 2008, SNF won 13 of 16 (81 percent) Sunday nights after winning 11 of 16 in 2007 (69 percent) and nine of 16 in 2006 (56 percent).

NO. 1 SHOW OF THE WEEK: Sunday night's game was the most-watched and highest-rated primetime program of the week and, for the 14^th straight week, "Sunday Night Football" was the No. 1 regularly-scheduled primetime broadcast of the week by a wide margin among Adults 18-49, the coveted advertiser demographic.  SNF was also the No. 1 show this week among Adults 18-34, Adults 25-54, Men 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.  

• For the week, "Sunday Night Football" had a 116-percent margin of victory over the No. 2 show in Adults 18-49 (9.8 for SNF vs. 4.4 for Glee on Fox).

 

• Since the beginning of the primetime television season, "Sunday Night Football" stands as the most-watched primetime show on television and the No. 1 regularly scheduled primetime show in all key adult and male demos.

Follow NBC Sports PR on Twitter at Twitter.com/NBCSportsPR
Follow "Sunday Night Football" on Twitter at Twitter.com/SNFonNBC
Become a fan of "Sunday Night Football" on Facebook at: Facebook.com/SNFonNBC

To post a comment, you must register and login.