For a record third consecutive year, the four Divisional Playoff games averaged more than 34 million viewers and accounted for the four most-watched shows on television last week (chart below).

Saturday night’s Baltimore Ravens-Denver Broncos game on CBS drew 35.3 million viewers ranking as the most-watched AFC Saturday Divisional Playoff since at least 1987.

And games on FOX did equally as well.

Saturday night’s Divisional clash between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers drew 30.9 million viewers and scored a 16.9/27 fast national rating/share, according to Nielsen Media Research. That ranks as FOX’s most-watched Saturday Divisional game ever in primetime. The game kicked-off as the Broncos/Ravens contest went into overtime but viewership quickly spiked to 34.3 million and an 18.6/30 rating/share at 9:00 PM ET. Game viewership peaked from 9:45 –10:00 PM ET as 35.9 million viewers watched Aaron Rodgers connect with James Jones tying the score for the third time with about 2:00 left in the first half. Milwaukee led all markets with a 50.8/74 followed by Sacramento (34.9/55) and San Francisco (32.7/60).

Sunday’s NFC Divisional matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons averaged 32.1 million viewers and posted a 19.3/38 fast national rating/share. Sunday’s game opened with 21.5 million viewers and grew steadily throughout the broadcast. At 4:00 PM ET, 43.2 million viewers (25.6/46 rating/share) watched the final events that included the Seahawks furious comeback, the Falcons field goal-hitting drive and Russell Wilson’s intercepted Hail Mary pass to finally end the game to advance to the NFC Championship. Seattle led all markets with a 45.6/79 followed by Atlanta which posted a 39.7/64.

 Through three broadcasts, the 2013 NFC PLAYOFFS on FOX are averaging a 19.2/34 with 33.6 million viewers. That’s off slightly from last year’s record-setting 21.2/39 (36.6 million viewers.) The 2013 postseason ranks as FOX’s third most-watched ever behind 2012 and 2011.

Since the Summer Olympics, seven NFL games have accounted for the only programs on television to reach 30 million viewers – four Divisional playoff games, two Wild Card playoff games, and the final Sunday Night Football game.

Most-Watched Shows on Television, Week of Jan. 7-13, 2013

Source: Nielsen Media Research via the NFL and FOX Sports Media Group

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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