NFC Championship Draws 50 Million Viewers, OT AFC Game Does 48 Mil

You were really, really ready for some NFL conference championship football this past Sunday.

For starters, The NFL on CBS‘ broadcast of the Cincinnati Bengals’ overtime victory against the Kansas City Chiefs averaged 47.9 million viewers, marking the most-watched Conference Championship Game in the early window in six years (since the Pats beat the Broncos in front of an audience of 53.3 million).

The Bengals-Chiefs match-up peaked with just shy of 61 million viewers.

Later in the day, the Los Angeles Rams’ 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers amassed 50.4 million total viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, Fox Sports streaming platforms, NFL Digital and Yahoo! Sports properties. That marks the most watched NFC Championship face-off since 2014 (when the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers, in front of an audience of nearly 56 million).

On Fox, that telecast peaked with 54.9 million viewers.

The Rams will now face the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, to be held Sunday, Feb. 13 at SoFo Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. and air on NBC. The halftime show will feature Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.

The total audiences for the past five Super Bowls are as follows: 111.3 million (Pats over Falcons, 2017)… 103.5 million (Eagles over Pats, 2018)… 98.5 million (Pats over Rams, 2019)… 101.3 million (Chiefs over 49ers, 2020)… and 91.6 million (Bucs over Chiefs, 2021). Where do you guesstimate this year’s crowd will land?