"Sunday Night Football" Is TV's Highest Rated Show For 7th Straight Season

Sunday Night Football averaged 18.2M viewers, tops television ratings for 7th straight year

While the NFL ratings have been in a steep decline for the past two seasons, it is still not enough from keeping football fans glued to their televisions.

NBC's "Sunday Night Football" is television's highest rated series for the seventh straight year, setting a new record. That tops Fox's "American Idol" which ruled the ratings from 2005-06 through the 2010-11 television season.

"SNF"  averaged 18.2 million TV viewers in 2017, and tops all shows in the important 18–49 demographic. The program was also second in total viewers, only behind "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS.

"One of the things that has allowed 'Sunday Night Football' to achieve this record is that when the NFL decided to take its marquee prime-time game off Monday and put it on Sunday, they would do all in their power to make sure Sunday nights would become successful," SNF produced Fred Gaudelli said. "The flex schedule, the marquee matchups, week in and week out."

"Thursday Night Football" on CBS and NBC are the ninth and 10th most watched shows of the television season.