Manning’s Broncos debut smashes ratings records

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Via CBS4 Denver —

Peyton Manning’s debut as quarterback of the Broncos was a big winner for NBC – its highest-rated game on a Sunday night. […]

The game drew a 16.5 national household rating and 26 share. That topped the 15.7/25 ratings of last year’s Cowboys-Giants Week 17 finale. The ratings also tied the 2010 NFL opener of Minnesota-New Orleans as NBC’s highest-rated regular-season game.

The Steelers-Broncos game was seen by more than 27.5 million viewers, second only to the Cowboys-Giants regular-season prime-time game.

See also: Peyton Manning Broncos SI cover

So the Broncos/Steelers tilt held the highest percentage of TV viewers of any game in NBC’s Sunday Night Football history, although last year’s NFC West finale enjoyed a slightly larger number of total viewers. Still, the entire NFL landscape was just as eager as Broncos fans to see how Peyton Manning would debut in orange and blue.

He did pretty well.

Broncos-Steelers Was Highest-Rated Sunday Night Game Ever [CBS4 Denver]