According to NBC, quoting data released by The Nielsen Company, the NFL's season-opening game Thursday night between the Saints and the Packers was the second-highest rated NFL regular-season prime-time game in 13 years, the second-highest rated NFL Kickoff game ever, the second-highest rated NBC regular-season prime-time game ever, and defeated its closest prime-time competition among the broadcast networks by 283 percent.

The game scored a 17.2 overnight rating/28 share, which is the second-highest regular-season prime-time NFL rating on any network since Dec. 21, 1998 (Broncos-Dolphins, 17.4/27). It was also the second-highest rated NFL Kickoff ever and the second-highest rated NBC regular-season primetime game ever behind only last year's Thursday night NFL Kickoff (17.7/28; down 3%), which featured an NFC championship-game rematch between the Vikings and the then-defending Super Bowl champion Saints.