Patriots-Colts Final Rating Eclipses Coveted 20 Percent

The final ratings are in, and the New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts showdown did manage to surpass the magic 20 percent rating. That's not easy to do for any program on any network, let alone a regular-season football game in November.

CBS registered a 20.1 percent Nielsen rating for the game, won by the Patriots 24-20. New England is now 9-0 as they try to become the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go undefeated all season.

Sunday's rating equates to 33.8 million viewers across the country and makes the telecast as the highest-rated regular season Sunday afternoon NFL telecast on any network since Fox drew a 20.2 rating for a Dallas Cowboys-San Francisco 49ers game in 1996.

To show the power of one game between unbeaten teams, Sunday night's Dallas-Philadelphia contest on NBC averaged 10.2 percent of the 112.8 million U.S. households with televisions, 27 percent lower than last year's 14 rating for Colts-Patriots on the comparable weekend.

So far this season, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" is averaging a 10.2 rating, 11 percent lower than last year's 11.4 average rating.