Primetime Ratings: Football Down But NBC Still Wins Easily

NBC won big in Sunday’s prime ratings, with Sunday Night Football leading the network to a 4.0 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 15 share. In second was Fox at 2.0/7.

On NBC, Football Night in America was down 21% for a 1.9 and the pre-game show fell 13% to 4.0. The game, Steelers versus Chargers, was off 11% for a 4.8. Last week’s game was the Packers versus the Vikings.

On Fox, an NFL overrun led into The OT at 2.6, then The Simpsons went up a whopping 78% to 1.6. Bob’s Burgers grew 33% for a 1.2. Family Guy was 1.1, before Rel scored a 0.6, both comedies flat.

CBS had a 1.1/4 and ABC a 0.7/3. On CBS, 60 Minutes lost 38% for a 1.3 and Garth: Live at Notre Dame! did a 1.3 from 8 to 10 p.m. An NCIS: Los Angeles repeat finished up prime.

ABC was at 0.7/3. America’s Funniest Home Videos slid 11% for a 0.8 and Dancing with the Stars Junior notched a flat 0.6. Shark Tank scored a level 0.7 and Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show a 0.9. Victoria’s Secret did a 0.2 last year on The CW.

Univision did a 0.6/2, thanks in part to the Nuestra Belleza Latina finale, and Telemundo a 0.4/1.

The CW scored a 0.3/1. Supergirl got a 0.4 and Charmed a 0.3, both up a tenth of a point. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.