Yes, it’s true. More people tuned into the 5-5 Cowboys vs. 4-6 Giants than another memorable showdown between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

The afternoon doubleheader game averaged 27.9 million viewers on Fox, while NBC pulled in 26.5 million viewers for the prime time game.

A couple of factors come into play:

Denver-New England had to go up against stiff prime time competition on CBS, ABC and elsewhere. Don’t tell me what happened in Homeland. Need to catch up.

Also, some viewers probably tuned out when the Broncos went up 24-0. I know I did for a while, and was stunned to see New England winning 28-24.

NBC, though, still did a huge number. It will give thanks for four Peyton Manning telecasts this year, all of which generated high ratings.

Yet the evening game still didn’t beat a game featuring two highly mediocre teams on Fox.

Bottom line: While NBC’s Sunday Night Football likely will be the highest-rated program in prime time again, the most watched part of the NFL’s TV package usually is the Sunday afternoon doubleheader telecast. Good teams or not.