Cowboys-49ers Draws Highest Wild Card Game Rating In Seven Years

Sunday's Cowboys-49ers game drew 41.5 million viewers on CBS, the highest average for a Wild Card game in seven years.

The game peaked at 50.2 million viewers when the Cowboys were on the move to win the game in the final minutes. ICYMI: they failed. They ran a QB draw with 14 seconds and no timeouts. They tried to spike the ball quickly for one last shot at the end zone and the win, but the clock ticked to 0:00 before they could do so, and San Francisco won 23-17.

Dallas is the NFL's biggest draw by far. The last Wild Card game to bring more viewers was the Cowboys and Lions in 2015. So the NFL is the only group more upset with Mike McCarthy's final play call than Cowboys fans.

That said, this weekend's slate should average more viewers than the Wild Card round, even if the top game falls below Cowboys-49ers. The blowouts hurt overall viewership for Wild Card Weekend. So much so, Pats-Bills -- the most hyped game of the weekend -- drew the smallest audience of all six games. And no wonder, the game was over by the first quarter

Here are the ratings for each Wild Card game:

49ers-Cowboys: 41.5 million.

Eagles-Buccaneers: 30.4 million.

Steelers-Chiefs: 28.9 million.

Raiders-Bengals: 27.7 million.

Pats-Bills: 26.4 million.

Without the Cowboys, the Chiefs-Bills in the Sunday afternoon time slot should win the Divisional Round, barring ablowout like their meeting earlier this season.

Nevertheless, the Cowboys helped lift the NFL playoffs to a promising start in the ratings.