Primetime Ratings: Football Down, But NBC Still Scores

With Sunday Night Football, NBC won the night’s broadcast ratings race, posting a 5.4 rating in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, with a 15 share. CBS seized runner up with a 3.5/10, then ABC showed a 1.4/4 and Fox a 1.2/3. NBC benefited from a barnburner that saw the Arizona Cardinals take down the Seattle Seahawks, but still fell short of last Sunday’s 6.3.

Bolstered by an NFL overrun, CBS saw 60 Minutes score a 3.2, up 3% from the previous Sunday. The program led with Scott Pelley speaking with survivors of the Paris terror attacks. Madam Secretary scored a 1.3, down 7%, The Good Wife was flat at 1.1 and CSI: Cyber had a 0.9, up 13%.

ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos rated a 0.9, down 10%, then a two-hour Once Upon a Time did a 1.6, up 7%, before Quantico registered a flat 1.3.

Fox’s Bob’s Burgers had a 1.0 before a Simpsons repeat, down 29%, then Brooklyn Nine-Nine at 1.3, up 8%. Family Guy was up 27% at 1.4, and The Last Man on Earth grew 20% to 1.2.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.