Primetime Ratings: NBC Wins With Cowboys-Rams

Football Night in America
(Image credit: NBC)

NBC won the Sunday ratings race, with the return of NFL action sparking the Nielsens dramatically. Thanks to Sunday Night Football, NBC posted a 4.0 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 22 share. Fox was runner-up at 2.1/11. 

NBC had Football Night in America at 1.8 and then the game, Cowboys versus Rams, scoring a 4.7. The first night of Sunday Night Football in 2019 saw Football Night in America at 3.0 on NBC and the game, Patriots-Steelers, at 6.6. 

Fox had a football game leading into prime, then The OT, averaging a 4.5 from 7-8 p.m. A Masked Singer special got a 1.3--the season begins September 23--and Fox’s 2020 Fall Preview Special scored a 0.5. 

CBS got a 0.7/4. 60 Minutes, featuring a new Bob Woodward segment and a couple rebroadcasted ones, scored a 0.9 and Big Brother shot up 25% to 1.0. Love Island went up 25% to 0.5.

ABC and Univision scored 0.4/2s. ABC had reruns across prime. 

Univision had Aqui y Ahora at a flat 0.2 and Quien Es La Mascara up 33% to 0.4.

Telemundo got a 0.3/2. Exatlon Estados Unidos grew 50% to 0.3 across three hours and a rerun of The Wall closed out prime. 

The CW got a 0.1/1. The Fridge Wars finale tallied a flat 0.1 and a Supernatural rerun followed. 

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.