Primetime Ratings: ‘Sunday Night Football’ Down But NBC Wins
By Michael Malone published

It being autumn in America and all, football ruled the night. Sunday Night Football did a 5.1 on NBC, down 12% from last week, leading out of a 3.2 Football Night in America. (The pre-game did a 3.1 last week.) With the Seattle Seahawks crushing the Carolina Panthers, the blowout nature of the game did not help ratings.
NBC won easily at 4.7 in adults 18-49, per Nielsen’s overnights, and a 14 share, ahead of Fox’s football-fueled 2.7/8, CBS’ 1.0/3 and ABC’s 0.8/2.
Fox had an NFL overrun setting up The OT at 4.1. The Simpsons did a 2.4, up from last week’s 1.3, while Son of Zorn was down 19% from its last new airing three weeks ago at 1.3. Family Guy grew 23% to 1.6, while Last Man on Earth climbed 22% to 1.1.
On CBS, 60 Minutes did a 1.5 before repeats, down from last week’s football-aided 2.3.
On ABC, America’s Funniest Home Videos scored a 0.9, down 18%, Once Upon a Time a 0.9, down 10%, and a two-hour Secrets and Lies finale a flat 0.7.
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.
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