Deshaun Watson & the Lone Star team had a very strong night & so did the NFL & NBC in the numbers

UPDATED, 4:40 PM: There are a lot of people who hate the success of the New England Patriots, and there are a lot people who will tune in to watch Tom Brady and team come up short. In fact, 22 million to be precise.

That the number of sets of eyeballs that watched the Houston Texans take down the Patriots 28-22 on last night across all of NBC and the NFL’s linear and digital platforms. The end result, besides a strong win for the Lone Star State crew, is the most-watched Week 13 SNF game in nine years and the most-watched SNF game involving the Texans on NBC ever.

On the network alone, the game in Houston was seen by an audience of 21.4 million — up almost 1 million over the week before and the comparable game of last year.

PREVIOUSLY, 10 AM: Last night’s Sunday Night Football game between the victorious Houston Texans and current Super Bowl champs the New England Patriots was a bit of a cheat, if you are going by the final score.

Sure, a 28-22 win looks close, but the reality is Houston QB Deshaun Watson and the rest of the Lone Star State team owned last night’s matchup on their home turf — as their locker room celebration makes very clear.

With three touchdowns and a total of 234 yards passing in the primetime NFL game on NBC, “Primetime” Watson proved his nickname was deserved. As for the lucky Patriots, who couldn’t complete their comeback of sorts, they and quarterback Tom Brady looked tired and slow in what some were calling a Super Bowl preview halfway through the game.

What no one is saying looked too tired last night was the ratings. Delivering a 5.5/24 among adults 18-49 and 18.92 million viewers, last night’s SNF is the best the Comcast-owned net’s flagship football show has done in several strong weeks.

Week-to-week, the Texans’ win was up 15% in the key demo and 11% in total sets of eyeballs in the unadjusted fast affiliates compared with November 24’s surging San Francisco 49ers crushing of the Green Bay Packers. Up against the American Music Awards on ABC, that SNF game went on to upgrade to a 5.9/26 rating and 20.83 million viewers – a result the three-week high of last night’s SNF is sure to shatter.

Compared to the equivalent game last season between the winning Minnesota Vikings and the Packers, last night’s SNF is pretty steady in the early 18-49 numbers. That November 25, 2018 matchup went on to bring home a 6.1/23 rating and 20.44 million viewers.

NBC was the easy winner last night overall in primetime, but we’ll still update with more NFL numbers as we get them.

As for the rest of the holiday weekend’s TV offerings, it was not such a ratings feast across the rest of the Big 4 and the CW.

At Fox, The Simpsons (0.7, 2.04M) hit a seaso -low taking a rough 1.1 stumble, while Bob’s Burgers (0.6, 1.60M) was also down.

CBS’ 60 Minutes (1.0, 8.14M) was up considerably and led into the 250th episode of NCIS: Los Angeles (0.7, 6.19M), which was up a tenth. Madam Secretary (0.4, 4.21M) held steady, rounding out the network’s night.

After last week’s telecast of the American Music Awards, ABC saw the return of Shark Tank (0.6, 2.96M) and The Rookie (0.5, 3.33M); both held steady. The network also aired Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (0.7, 3.12M), which saw a bit of a boost from last year.

The CW also saw the return of their superhero block with Batwoman (0.3, 1.01M), who flew in and held steady, and Supergirl (0.2, 880,000) which nearly matched its numbers from two weeks ago.