Even though the Bengals have more games with available tickets then sellouts, there's a growing feeling that Cincinnati could be in the playoff hunt this year. Hey, if you're a pessimistic, take your pessimism elsewhere. I'm talking playoffs baby. This all started when the Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and showed enough guts to rise above a less-than-stellar performance to beat in-state "rivals" in Cleveland.
Then, on Monday, the team announced another sellout against the Bears. You have to believe that tickets are starting to be sold. People are starting to believe.
Nielson ratings, how television programming is measured, has two known components that are generally used. Household ratings and household shares. A rating represents one percent of the total number of televisions available. Share represents the percentage of televisions tuned into the broadcast. The numbers would obviously only apply to the Cincinnati Bengals market and not the United States -- like you actually thought 61% of the country watched the Bengals beat the Browns. I think I'm close to explaining all of that. If not, do a Wiki search and bring us back some knowledge.
Long story short, because of many fans growing interest with the Bengals, shedding aside the Mike Brown anger for at least another season interest keeps picking up. Hey, what is that? That's the Cincinnati Bengals. And those boys have guts. It could be that the Browns and Steelers helped drive the ratings -- being division opponents and all -- or it could be that those games may have just made people realize how awesome watching the Bengals are. And by awesome, I mean totally aging 3-4 months in the span of one possession.
| Market | Game | Date | Rating | Share | Rank |
| Cincinnati | Bengals at Browns | 10/4/09 | 34.6 | 61 | 1 |
| Cincinnati | Steelers at Bengals | 9/27/09 | 35.8 | 57 | 1 |
| Cincinnati | Bengals at Packers | 9/20/09 | 30.8 | 51 | 1 |
| Cincinnati | Broncos at Bengals | 9/13/09 | 27.7 | 54 | 1 |