Bear Digest

Bears' dramatic win over Packers dwarfs TV audience for College Football Playoff

The Chicago Bears' overtime win over the Green Bay Packers last weekend drew more than 21 million viewers on FOX.
Richie Whitt|
DJ Moore
DJ Moore | David Banks-Imagn Images

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The Chicago Bears staged a dramatic rally to beat the Green Bay Packers last weekend. In the process, they also dealt the College Football Playoff a blowout loss.

The Bears' Week 16 come-from-behind overtime win averaged 21.34 million viewers on FOX, making it easily the most-watched sporting event on a crowded day of pro and college football. The Bears’ 22-16 win - punctuated by Caleb Williams' perfect walk-off touchdown pass to DJ Moore - dominated the CFP's competing game: James Madison vs. Oregon. That game, on TNT, drew only 4.4 million.

MORE: As Bears ponder NFC 1-seed scenarios how is Ben Johnson not NFL Coach of the Year?

The NFL also flexed its muscle earlier last Saturday, with the Philadelphia Eagles' win over the Washington Commanders drawing 15.46 million to dwarf the CFP game between Tulane an Mississippi (6.2 million).

Combined, the NFL won its head-to-head games with the CFP by 385 and 150 percent. The two CFP games that did not face the NFL both averaged nearly 15 million viewers, with Alabama-Oklahoma at 14.9 last Friday night and Miami-Texas A&M 14.8 million last Saturday morning before the NFL kicked off.

In other words, watch out NBA. Football is coming to take over Christmas on TV.

MORE: Is Bears' Caleb Williams the NFL's most clutch QB this season?

Though the Bears drew an impressive 21 million, that audience was amazingly less than half of the NFL's most-watched game of the season. The Dallas Cowboys' victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thanksgiving drew 57.2 million to make it the most-watched regular-season NFL game ever.

Hoping to keep alive their chances of earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC Playoffs, the Bears travel to San Francisco Sunday night to play the 49ers in another game that should garner a huge TV audience.

Caleb Williams
Caleb Williams | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Richie Whitt
RICHIE WHITT

Richie Whitt has been a sports media fixture in Dallas-Fort Worth since graduating from UT-Arlington in 1986. His career is highlighted by successful stints in print (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), TV (NBC5) and radio (105.3 The Fan). During his almost 40-year tenure, he's blabbed and blogged on events ranging from Super Bowls to NBA Finals to World Series to Stanley Cups to Olympics to Wimbledons to World Cups. Whitt has been covering the NFL since 1989, and in 1993 authored The 'Boys Are Back, a book chronicling the Dallas Cowboys' run to Super Bowl XXVII.

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