The Lions don’t seem to be the draw they’ve become in recent years. And the Panthers are still struggling to find national footing.
Sunday night’s game between Detroit and Carolina averaged 19.5 million viewers for NBC, per Nielsen.
The first four NBC games of the 2026 season had exceeded 20 million viewers, with the Week 3 Rams-Broncos game attracting 20.8 million viewers.
Sunday night’s game was up against an MLB playoff game between the Atlanta Braves and L.A. Dodgers. The baseball game siphoned 3.33 million viewers away from football.
Regardless, the number for Lions-Panthers suggests that the bloom is off the rose as to the resurgence of Detroit, which became much more of a national attraction in 2023. But Detroit has slipped back toward a middle-of-the-pack team in 2026, and the lack of an intense following seems to reflect that.