Chiefs-Bills Ratings Were Predictably Out of This World

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills capped off what many are calling the greatest weekend of football ever with arguably the greatest playoff football game ever on Sunday night. The Chiefs emerged victorious, 42-36, from the overtime slugfest in which neither offense made a single mistake and both defenses were cruelly picked apart by Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, respectively. It was, in every regard, a glorious display of quarterbacking.

Such games, filled with offensive dominance and exciting plays while remaining close on the scoreboard, appeal to everybody, not just the die-hard fans. So it is of no surprise that Chiefs-Bills put up absurd ratings numbers this weekend. CBS announced it was the most-watched divisional playoff game watched on any network in the last five years and peaked at 51 million viewers (just barely beating out last week's Cowboys-Niners ratings bonanza).

Fifty million people is just a silly number for any non-Super Bowl sporting event. Again, though, it was expected. Not only was it a fantastic game that everybody could enjoy, the game didn't run as late as usual Sunday Night Football games so East Coast viewers stuck with it till the end. The NFL had all the momentum going into the game that night after three wire-to-wire contests that all were decided on the final play, and Chiefs-Bills somehow one-upped them all.

Football is still king in the ratings world, and these kinds of numbers are what happens when the playoff games live up to their potential.