AFC and NFC Championship Game Ratings Down - Pretty Considerably, Actually

Didn’t hear much about the Conference Championship game ratings from Sunday, did you? Maybe everyone was taking the day off for the holiday, or reveling in the inauguration festivities, but almost nobody was talking about NFL TV ratings. Could it be because they were … down? Significantly?

2012:
Ravens at Patriots: 48.7 million viewers
Giants at 49ers: 57.6 million viewers

2013:
49ers at Falcons: 42.0 million viewers
Ravens at Patriots: 47.7 million viewers

A substantial drop, as Neil Best notes.

Last year's early conference final averaged 48.7 million and late one 57.6 million. So this year's 42.0 and 47.7 is a substantial drop.
— Neil Best (@sportswatch) January 21, 2013

Reasons for the drop:

1) New York Giants (’12) vs. Atlanta Falcons (’13). New York is the No. 1 TV market.

2) The late game in 2012 (Giants at 49ers) had drama and went to overtime, driving up ratings. The Patriots, amazingly, didn’t score in the 2nd half against the Ravens Sunday, and after Brady’s tipped-pass interception with about eight minutes left, the game appeared to be over.

You can place your Super Bowl 47 ratings guess here, or in the post we do the day before the game: Will it reach or top last year’s 111 million viewers, which was the most-watched show in TV history? Reminder: The Super Bowl is an event, and the combatants don’t really matter that much.