NFL

What we watched in 2013

Not everyone watched NFL football this year — it just seems that way.

NFL telecasts dominate Nielsen’s list of 2013’s top TV broadcasts, both in single-telecast viewership and regularly scheduled prime-time broadcasts.

While we know that the Super Bowl will be TV’s most-watched showevery year — the Big Game snared 109 million viewers last February on CBS — it’s a bit surprising to see that regular, in-season NFL games also dominate the TV landscape.

40 million viewers watched the Oscars.Chris Pizzello/AP

In fact, only the Oscars, which averaged 40 million viewers last February on ABC, made Nielsen’s list of “Top Programs of 2013 — Single Telecast” — and just barely.

The Super Bowl, in fact, occupies the first top three slots, which is a bit misleading, since the game’s pre- and post-game shows are broken out separately (and not factored into the actual game itself). These three telecasts are followed by NFL championship, wildcard and divisional playoff games, led by the AFC Championship Game on CBS, which averaged a whopping 48 million viewers last January.

The Oscars finish in the seventh slot, sandwiched between two Fox telecasts: the NFC Championship Game (42 million viewers) and the NFC Wildcard Game (38 million viewers).

It’s a little different — but not much — over on the prime-time side. With the exceptions of “NCIS,” “Dancing With the Stars” (and its results show), “American Idol” (both nights) and “The Big Bang Theory,” Nielsen’s “Top 10 Primetime (Regularly Scheduled) TV Programs of 2013” are NFL games, led by NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” (22 million viewers) and its pregame show (16 million viewers).

“NCIS,” with an average of nearly 15 million viewers, led the series category, followed by the performance shows of “DWTS” (13.9 million).

One category immune from the encroachment of NFL viewers is “timeshifting,” which measures the additional viewers that shows add via DVR viewership, etc.

13.2 million viewers tuned in to “The Big Bang Theory.”Monty Brinton/CBS

(Let’s face it, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who would want to watch an NFL game days after its live broadcast.)

In the “timeshifting” category, NBC’s freshman hit “The Blacklist,” starring James Spader, came out on top in 2013, adding an additional 8 million viewers after its original telecast. In second place was Fox’s “The Following” (5.7 million viewers), followed by “Under the Dome” (5.4 million viewers), “Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (5.34 million viewers) and “Sleepy Hollow” (5.31 million viewers).

This category is becoming more and more important to the networks, especially in justifying the ratings power of shows that might not draw a lot of viewers in their initial telecasts.

It will be interesting to see if “timeshifting,” in fact, will become more of a selling point to advertisers than the current “gold standard” of a show’s performance among adults 18-49.

Stay tuned.