Facing the Olympics, viewership plunged for the first week of the NFL preseason

Saturday’s Cowboys/Rams NFL preseason game earned a 2.0 final rating and 3.2 million viewers on ESPN, down 23% in ratings and 17% in viewership from the network’s Browns/Bills preseason opener last year (2.6, 3.9M) and down 23% and 16%, respectively, from its Jaguars/Bears opener in 2014 (2.6, 3.8M).

Excluding games on NFL Network, the 2.0 rating tied the lowest mark for a nationally televised preseason game since at least 2007. It fared slightly better in viewership, earning the fifth-smallest preseason audience over that span.

The Rams’ win, which marked the team’s first game back in Los Angeles since relocating in the offseason, faced hefty competition from the Olympic Games on NBC (14.2, 25.5M).

In other preseason action, Texans/49ers had a 0.9 and 1.4 million viewers on NFL Network Sunday night — down 31% in ratings and 26% in viewership from Colts/Steelers in a daytime window last year (1.3, 1.9M), but the network’s largest preseason audience of week one (five telecasts).

Seahawks/Chiefs posted 941,000 on the same network the previous day, off 47% from Buccaneers/Vikings last year (1.8M) and 67% from Browns/Lions in 2014 (2.9M), both of which aired in a later window.

Completing a clean sweep of declines, Lions/Steelers scored a 0.7 and 1.2 million and Raiders/Cardinals a 0.6 and 924,000 on Friday night — marking viewership declines of 16% and 39%, respectively, from last year’s comparable doubleheader of Titans/Falcons (1.4M) and Broncos/Seahawks (1.5M).

(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily, Programming Insider; additional assistance from Son of the Bronx)