FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Holding the lead from start to finish, the New England Patriots captured their fifth victory of the season last night following their 23-7 win over the Atlanta Falcons in a Super Bowl LI rematch on NBC's Sunday Night Football. The much-anticipated rematch met expectations amongst the local television audience, delivering the highest household rating of the 2017 season and finishing the week as the top ranked program in the Boston market.
The 37.6 local household rating was the second-highest regular season rating for the Patriots of the past two seasons and the highest since Week 12 of the 2016 season, while the 12.6 national household rating made it the highest-rated primetime NFL game since Week 1. In comparison, the 12.6 national rating was a nine-percent increase over NBC's Sunday Night Football matchup from Week 7 of 2016, which featured an overtime showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals, and a 16-percent increase from last week's Sunday Night Football matchup featuring the New York Giants and Denver Broncos.
Next week the Patriots will welcome the Los Angeles Chargers to Gillette Stadium for a 1:00 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday, October 29. The game will be broadcast locally on WBZ with Ian Eagle handling play-by-play duties accompanied by color commentary from Dan Fouts.
HIGHEST RATED PRIMETIME NFL MATCHUPS OF 2017
| **Program** | **WEEK** | **NETWORK** | **DATE** | **RATING** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cowboys vs. Giants | 1 | NBC | 9/10/17 | 13.4 |
| **Patriots vs. Falcons** | **7** | **NBC** | **10/22/17** | **12.6** |
| Falcons vs. Packers | 2 | NBC | 9/17/17 | 11.3 |
| Raiders vs. Redskins | 3 | NBC | 9/24/17 | 10.1 |
| Colts vs. Seahawks | 4 | NBC | 10/1/17 | 9.6 |
