AP

Thursday night’s Patriots-Buccaneers game generated a strong rating for CBS and NFL Network.

The game had a combined 11.1 overnight rating, up 26 percent from the Thursday night game in Week Five of last season, which also aired on both CBS and NFL Network.

Apples-to-apples year-to-year comparisons of Thursday Night Football ratings are a little difficult because the league makes changes about which games air exclusively on NFL Network and which games are also on a broadcast network, either CBS or NBC. But generally speaking, Thursday night ratings this year are up, when comparing NFL Network-only games this year to NFL Network-only games last year, and when comparing broadcast network games this year to broadcast network games last year.

There’s been much hand-wringing about NFL ratings over the last two years, but there’s little doubt that the NFL remains the most-watched programming on American television.