According to the Nielsen Fast Affiliate ratings for Monday night, West Virginia's point-scoring first-quarter may have cost ABC some ratings points in its coverage of the Sugar Bowl. Meanwhile, CBS beat out NBC for second despite running all repeats to the Peacock's all-original lineup.
Althought Georgia came back to make it a game in the second quarter and a bulldog fight until the end, the ratings for the game were downhill from that first 28-7 scoring spree by the Mountaineers.
In the 18-49 demo, the game began with about a 7.2 rating, but declined each half hour, ending its prime time performance--it went past 11 p.m.--with a 4.2 at 10:30, losing out to the last half hour of CSI: Miami on CBS and Medium on NBC (tied at a 4.4/11).
The Fast Affiliate numbers do not completely reflect the ratings performance of live shows, so the numbers could change when the final rating come in, but not enough to unseat ABC atop the night, thanks to the Fiesta and Sugar Bowl games. The network averaged a 5.8 rating/13 share.
CBS averaged a 4/9 with its Monday sitcoms plus the always strong CSI franchise.
NBC got good numbers from Las Vegas at 9, which came in second behind the Sugar Bowl with a 4/8, and Medium at 10 with a 4.1/8. Surface at 8-9 was less impressive at a 2.7/6 for third place.
Fox was fourth at a 2.4/6 for back-to-back Arrested Development episodes (a new plus a repeat) and a repeat of House, which for the second week in a row the network is running on both Monday (in Prison Break's old 9 p.m. slot ) and in its regular Tuesday time period.
Univision was fifth at a 1.9/4 for soaps and Christina, followed by UPN (sitcom repeats) and The WB (drama and reality re-runs), tied for fifth at a 1.3/3 apiece.
