Prime Time Preliminary Sunday Ratings

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Brothers and Sisters" both took downward dips in the ratings during their season premieres (down 7% and 6%, respectively, year-to-year), landing at their lowest ever scores. CBS' "The Amazing Race" also tumbled substantial from last year's start, down 28%. "Race" premiered after a high-rated Patriots-Colts game in 2007. The Eagles-Bears game on NBC dropped 22% from last week's Packers-Cowboys matchup.

	7	7:30	8	8:30	9	9:30	10	10:30
4.4 / 11	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 2.2 / 7 7.2 mil		Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 3.7 / 9 11.9 mil		Desperate Housewives 7.0 / 16 18.4 mil		Brothers and Sisters 4.7 / 12 12.4 mil
2.6 / 7	60 Minutes 2.1 / 6 12.1 mil		Amazing Race 13 3.1 / 8 10.3 mil		Cold Case 2.7 / 6 11.2 mil		The Unit 2.6 / 6 9.7 mil
4.6 / 12	NFL Overrun 8.0 / 24 20 mil	The OT 4.5 / 13 11 mil	The Simpsons 4.4 / 12 9.3 mil	King of the Hill 3.3 / 8 7 mil	Family Guy 4.5 / 10 9.2 mil	American Dad 3.2 / 7 6.9 mil	No Programming
5.2 / 13	Football Night in America 1.8 / 5 4.9 mil	Football Night in America 2.8 / 8 7 mil	Football Night in America 4.9 / 13 12.9 mil	NFL Football: Eagles vs. Bears 6.3 / 15 16.3 mil
0.6 / 2	One Tree Hill 0.6 / 2 1.4 mil		Privileged 0.6 / 1 1.2 mil		America's Next Top Model 0.7 / 2 1.4 mil		No Programming

Source: Nielsen Media Research

*Ratings are specified in the 18-to 49-year-old demographic and viewership in P2+.

A note about ratings: Ratings are expressed as percentages of Nielsen's estimated 112.8 million U.S. television households. The first number, the rating, is a percentage of households tuned into a specific program at a specific time.

The second number, the share, is a percentage of households with televisions in use tuned into that same program. For example, if a show obtains a 10.2/16, this means that 10.2% of all U.S. households tuned into the program at some point during the broadcast. Meanwhile, 16% of all households watching television during the time period viewed the program at some point. Ratings are broken down further by demographic, as networks sell advertising time based on the makeup of the audience.