I can envision Nowdy watching the game on her TV, watching Brett get the snot knocked out of him with the accompanying camera shots towards Deanna and Momma Favre as they looked on in helpless agony. Buddy it kicked them motherly instincts into overdrive as I soon found out after sticking my old post To the Superbowl and Beyond…. to the front page of Slabbed after Hartley made the field goal to end the game. Nowdy and the local Who Dat Nation were not alone watching the game as the Time Picayune’s Dave Walker explains:
The New Orleans Saints’ overtime playoff victory over the Minnesota Vikings was the most-watched non-Super Bowl TV broadcast since the May 1998 “Seinfeld” finale.
And it had a better ending.
With an average national audience of 57.9 million — 40 percent larger than last year’s NFC Championship Game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals — Sunday’s game was also the most-watched NFC Championship game in nearly three decades.
The January 1982 conference title playoff between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers — broadcast by CBS and won by Dwight Clark’s leaping, last-minute reception know as “The Catch” — attracted 68.7 million viewers nationally. The “Seinfeld” finale drew 76.3 million. Continue reading “A quick look back at the Saints-Vikes: Most watched NFC Championship game in 3 decades”