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# Hello, Football! Viewership Trends for the NFL’s Season Opener
- URL: https://tvrev2beta2.ghost.io/hello-football-viewership-trends-for-the-nfls-season-opener/
- Published: 2020-09-11T13:59:10.000Z
- Updated: 2020-09-11T13:59:10.000Z
- Author: Eleanor Semeraro
- Tags: Sports, Data & Measurement, NFL, NBC, viewership, Football, Inscape, #sqs, #Import 2026-09-03 20:26

In a year that has anything but, the NFL’s return last night offered a bit of normalcy — although with the ongoing pandemic, it’s impossible to predict what will happen this season. But for the time being, football fans can enjoy live games being back on TV — and enjoy they certainly did. 

According to [Inscape](https://www.inscape.tv/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io), the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million active and opted-in smart TVs, of all the minutes watched yesterday (Sept. 10), **6.04% of the time was spent watching the NFL season opener** on NBC between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans. An additional 1.15% of the time was spent on NBC’s pregame show *Football Night in America: Kickoff*. 

Indeed, audiences were tuning in long before the actual kickoff — here’s what [Inscape’s live TV dashboard](https://www.inscape.tv/live-data?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) looked like before 8pm ET last night: 

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/CrT6Pd1AGzvAV_1Z_isFwtCBQH7_yB3cX-yHTl52_jCXgX95bMYw9n-4TVUPAK8mGh1-PAZgFdXWL-ZutcrH61yTMSq2yv3_Yv5ZXN0H1sAiaC2IMxsPsxHf7sMYCxk7EOX06ulT)

Via Inscape.tv

By 8:34pm ET, the game was by far the most-watched program on TV, with CBS’ *Big Brother* a distant second: 

![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/QLXKNqbNL_VfhI3t5mc4QLar4Mpk1-HpiGJyDXPgi7_09D7g7GtfsWqEi61W3o0FEdMW-BXFL84FbPdIFLolpGNMmfZXhBU2rGAMekNN668RfUNVTP2Y2n-h4XEjxKTXbGXZOv5O)

Via Inscape.tv

Here’s a look at audience location by local area market. Unsurprisingly, Kansas City leads the list of viewership hotspots, followed by Topeka, St. Joseph, Joplin-Pittsburg and Wichita-Hutchinson. 

![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/S12oFpLiStTzdIgQ-tWdJb2Mo3nGOiZDGsVFRoOiWXDtRV41PBH2kawUGQxfDPekqDEckTNrBRfaxQqNnaL0adPpAJJue8YQHcZEebqjRPHsunMX6kSQwp43aRugPHlNSf93BWGv)

Aside from other sports and news programming, here’s what else NFL fans are watching these days:

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/OXVyrQjiIs50AQ0zp-vDwv99dFzwNiV_30Xiy0AW6xXEwrb2YpkEE2sh-VE3UAQouG4-3IadUqAYBDx3Ef2oe5skK1HG1_-F60Z5z1fN9XQlWdFh9sI5qwwtSp85qPxDSu-O8A5a)

**Want insights into the return of live sports this summer?** 

Our [latest report](http://www.tvrev.com/s/reports/tvrev-summer-tv-sports-report/img?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) is chock-full of data from Inscape as well as advertising highlights from always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company i[Spot.tv](https://www.ispot.tv/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io). In the report, you’ll learn:

- Which sports TVs are most tuned into
- League viewing hotspots by DMA
- Top brand advertisers during sports’ return
- What audiences are watching when sports aren’t on
- How postponements will impact college football networks and advertisers
- Viable alternatives to capture sports audiences without access to playoff ad buys

[Download your free copy here](http://www.tvrev.com/s/reports/tvrev-summer-tv-sports-report/img?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) (enter $0 as payment amount) or email us at [yotvrev@gmail.com](mailto:yotvrev@gmail.com) for the PDF.