SI

Bills Win Over the Chiefs Pulled In Monster Viewership Number for CBS

Week 11’s Chiefs-Bills game is now the most-watched NFL game of the 2024 season.

Jimmy Traina

More than 30 million people watched Josh Allen's heroics against the Chiefs in Week 11
More than 30 million people watched Josh Allen's heroics against the Chiefs in Week 11 / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

1. When I had Jim Nantz and Tony Romo on last week’s SI Media Podcast, I asked them if they thought the Chiefs-Bills game could get to 30 million viewers. Nantz said he thought it would. He was right.

A whopping 31.2 million people watched Buffalo's’ exciting 30–21 win over Kansas City. It topped the Ravens-Chiefs season opener on NBC, which was watched by 28 million people, as the most-watched game of the season.

It was also CBS’s most-viewed, non-Thanksgiving and non-Christmas Day game since Patriots-Colts in 2007.

Chiefs-Bills got a nice boost from the Ravens-Steelers lead-in game that aired on CBS at 1 p.m. That game pulled in 19.8 million viewers, making it CBS's best viewership number in the early window since 1992.

Meanwhile, despite being one of the worst teams to watch this season, NFL fans still can’t quit the Cowboys. Monday night’s Texans-Cowboys game on ABC/ESPN drew 17 million viewers. The game peaked with 19.5 million viewers in the first half.

That’s good news for the league because the Cowboys have another Monday night game against the Bengals in Week 14 and a Sunday night game on NBC against the Bucs in Week 16.

2. You knew Charles Barkley would not let the big news of TNT licensing Inside the NBA to ESPN next season go by without referencing it in some way, shape or form during Tuesday night’s show. Here’s how he did it.

3. I’m pretty sure this clip is NFL insider Adam Schefter telling ESPN’s Kevin Clark that he once broke a story while in the middle of having relations.

4. LeBron James is definitely at the point in his career where he doesn’t have any you-know-whats to give. While I can’t say the word on SI.com, LeBron let it fly last night after Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht went off for 37 points in a win against the Jazz.

After the game, LeBron was asked what he saw in Knecht last year when he was at Tennessee.

“I don’t know. Same s--- I said last year," he said. "Everybody on the internet calls me a liar all the time. They say I like about every f---- thing. So what am I now? I been said it. I watched Tennessee a lot. I did not think he was gonna fall to us. I thought it was gonna be impossible. I have no idea how that happened.

"They didn’t find DK. The other 16 teams f----- it up. Did anybody watch him? S---. They just didn’t f--- it up.”

5. HBO released a trailer Tuesday for the in-season edition of Hard Knocks, featuring all the teams in the AFC North. The show will debut on Dec. 3.

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features an interview with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.

CBS’s lead NFL broadcast team talks about working together for eight seasons, their chemistry, their preference to do a conversational broadcast, criticism Romo has faced in recent years and why they think they are having their best season ever in the booth.

Other topics discussed with Nantz and Romo include what it was like to call the Jayden Daniels Hail Mary, the Cowboys’ demise, the upcoming NFL schedule, the Lions becoming a super power and much more.

Following Nantz and Romo, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss Jerry Seinfeld’s surprise phone call to WFAN, attending Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s 65th birthday party, Aaron Rodgers getting duped by a fake tweet and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Today is President Biden’s 82nd birthday. Calm down, hold off on sending me a nasty tweet. I’m not posting anything political here. I’m just going to give you Dana Carvey talking about how he’s able to do a phenomenal Joe Biden impression.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

Published
Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

Home/Media