Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos debut posted the best overnight rating for any prime-time NFL game in 15 years, NBC said yesterday.
More than 26 million people are estimated to have watched Denver’s 31-19 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, which featured Manning’s first game after a year off because of injury.
The game was up 8 percent from last year’s first game on NBC, a matchup between Dallas and the New York Jets.
The previous best NFL Week 1 overnight was a Dallas-Chicago game on ABC in 1996, and it was the best NFL prime-time game since a Denver-San Francisco matchup in 1997.
It didn’t hurt that the game was competitive up until the final minutes.
Manning, 36, threw two touchdown passes, including the go-ahead score with about 9 minutes left in the game.