Saints’ win over Bucs was highest-rated FOX NFL opener in 4 years

The New Orleans Saints drew a huge audience in their Week 1 game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the highest NFL on FOX broadcast since 2016.

[jwplayer vrTXrwWO-ThvAeFxT]

So much for all that chatter about a boycott. FOX Sports reported an overnight rating of 16.2 from its Week 1 game between the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a four-year high for the season’s first FOX NFL Game of the Week.

This game received a higher viewership rating than its 2019 counterpart (15.9), and projects to rank best among all national telecasts since Super Bowl LIV earlier this year once all markets report their individual ratings. It turns out that Drew Brees and Tom Brady can still draw a crowd.

It will be fascinating to track each team’s progress over the course of the 2020 season; while Brees and the Saints were self-critical in looking for ways to improve and clear up their remaining weaknesses, Brady and the Buccaneers must reevaluate their own areas of strength to find what went wrong.

For now, the Saints are sitting alone on top of the NFC South standings, and they’re hoping to hold onto that spot as they prepare for Week 2’s Monday Night Football game with the Las Vegas Raiders.

[vertical-gallery id=37752]