Bears' 27-24 win over the Buccaneers draws 21.5 million Sunday night viewers
Chicago's 27-24 win over Tampa Bay drew 21.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. Up next for the 7-2 Bears is New Orleans at home.
The Chicago Bears are now a draw in prime time. Their 27-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night pulled in an average of 21.5 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports reported. The story was also carried by Yahoo Sports.
According to PFT, that made it the largest Week 9 Sunday night audience since 2019. It was also the seventh Sunday Night Football broadcast this season to top 20 million viewers. PFT's Mike Florio wrote that the Bears have become a "significant draw" and added that a close finish helps. Sunday's game qualified, since Chicago held on by three points.
The audience numbers follow the results. Chicago is 7-2 and has won four in a row since a 31-7 loss at Green Bay. In that run the Bears won at Atlanta 31-23, beat New England 30-24 at home, won 34-17 at Seattle and then held off Tampa Bay. That works out to about 30.5 points scored and 22 allowed per game. Three of those four wins came by eight points or fewer, which is the kind of finish that keeps a national audience watching through the fourth quarter. Big ratings tend to bring more prime-time slots, and a team this watchable gives networks a reason to keep picking Chicago when flexible scheduling comes up later in the season.
Over the full season the Bears have scored 241 points and allowed 184, a margin of plus-57. They are 4-1 at Soldier Field and 3-1 on the road. The only home loss was a 9-3 game against Minnesota, which is still their lowest-scoring performance of the year.
What it means against New Orleans
The Bears play the New Orleans Saints at home on Sunday, November 22, in a Fox broadcast instead of a national prime-time window. The price board shows clearly how the market sees the matchup. Chicago is favored by 9.5 points and is a heavy moneyline favorite.
Novig, one of seven venues on this site's board, has the Bears at -567, a $17.64 return on a $100 stake. The best price anywhere is DraftKings at -470, which returns $21.28 on the same stake. That gap of nearly 100 points on the favorite is wide for a moneyline. On the other side, the Saints are +426 on Novig and +430 at FanDuel, the best price, so the venues are nearly level there.
On the spread, Novig lists Chicago -9.5 at -115 and New Orleans +9.5 at even money. DraftKings has the best Bears price at -9.5, -110. The total ranges from 48.5 at DraftKings to 49.5 at FanDuel. Each of Chicago's last four games has landed at 51 or 54 combined points. Sportsbook hold runs from 4.2% to 5.0% across the moneyline, spread and total.
Those numbers price the Bears like a team that has settled in among the league's better sides. Another one-score finish is the kind of game that has drawn big audiences, but a 9.5-point line shows the market expects a wider margin this time. Follow the season on the Bears team page.