Patriots-Broncos helps earn best NFL rating of season

The highly anticipated matchup between Tom Brady and Tim Tebow helped draw the second-best preliminary television rating for a regular-season NFL game on CBS since the network acquired the AFC package in 1998.

The New England Patriots' 41-23 win over the Denver Broncos led to a 19.5 overnight rating and 36 share for CBS's NFL coverage Sunday. Only the Nov. 4, 2007, games highlighted by a meeting of two undefeated teams, the Patriots and Colts, had a higher rating in the last 14 seasons on the network with a 22.5/39.

It was the highest overnight rating for any NFL game this season.

Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time. Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets.