NEW YORK -- The NFL conference title games' television viewership is up big from last season.
The Broncos' 26-16 win over New England for the AFC championship averaged 51.3 million viewers Sunday on CBS. That's up 22 percent from the early game a year ago between San Francisco and Atlanta.
The Seahawks' 23-17 victory over the 49ers in the NFC averaged 55.9 million viewers on Fox, up 17 percent from Ravens-Patriots in the late window in 2013.
CBS said Monday that Denver's win had a 28.1 rating and 51 share -- the second-highest rating for the AFC game in 17 years, behind a 28.3 for Jets-Steelers in 2011. Seattle's victory drew a 28.5/44, the highest-rated non-overtime NFC game since 1997.
Ratings measure the percentage of households with televisions watching a program, while shares represent the percentage of TVs in use at the time.