NEW YORK -- Television ratings for NFL games are off to a strong start this season.
Fox has posted its highest average rating for the first three weeks since the network started televising the league's games in 1994. Fox said Thursday that it's averaging an 11.2 rating and 24 share, up 23 percent from the same period last year.
Earlier this season, the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys Sunday night game on NBC drew the highest rating for any prime-time regular-season game since 2000.
The average audience for NFL games this season has been 17.2 million viewers, up 10 percent from this point last year.
Ratings represent the percentage of all households with televisions tuned into a program, and shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
