With both ties played on Saturday, ABC scored a 15.1 overnight rating for the game between Indianapolis and the New York Jets, won by the latter, followed by an 18.4 rating for the evening game in which Atlanta beat Green Bay.
Atlanta's victory was even more encouraging for ABC given the overnight ratings were 18 percent higher than the corresponding fixture - the Jets against Oakland - the previous year.
The television ratings for this year's NFL wild card play-off games produced the highest overnight audiences for four years for host broadcaster ABC.
