Overnight Nielsen Rating of 31.7 Indicates Miami, Chicago Set Monday Night Record

The Miami Dolphins’ 38-24 victory over the previously unbeaten Chicago Bears drew an overnight Nielsen rating of 31.7 and a 48 share--numbers which, if they hold up nationally, would set a record for a Monday night football telecast, an ABC spokesman said Tuesday.

An overnight rating represents an average of the nation’s 12 major markets. A rating is a rough estimate of the percentage of all television households where a particular program was being watched. A share is an estimate of only television households where sets are turned on.

National ratings will be released today. There could be major differences between the overnights and the nationals. However, there was virtually none in the previous highest overnight, Miami’s 28-21 victory over Dallas last Dec. 17. The overnights for that game were a 25.3 rating and 40 share and the nationals were 25.1 and 40.

If the national rating is close to Tuesday’s overnight for the Bears and Dolphins, it will surpass the record national numbers of a 26.8 rating and 43 share, set on Oct. 2, 1978, when the Washington Redskins defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 9-5, at Washington.

The Bear-Dolphin game drew the biggest viewership in Chicago (50.5 rating, 68 share) and Miami (47.1 and 68), Dallas (41.6 and 58) and Denver (41.5 and 57).

The rest of the cities, with ratings and shares: San Francisco (35.7 and 51), Washington (32.8 and 53), Los Angeles (32.3 and 43), Houston (32.2 and 48), Philadelphia (29.1 and 46), Detroit (26.8 and 40), Boston (20.9 and 36), and New York (20.3 and 35).