‘Trek’ Cameos Send ‘Family Guy’ Soaring
March 30, 2009 11:52 AM
NCAA March Madness coverage helped CBS take the top spot Sunday night, but it was Fox’s “Family Guy,” featuring guest appearances by the cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” that generated the night’s highest rating.
Fox’s “Family Guy” claimed the No. 1 spot for the night with a 4.2 rating/10 share among adults 18-49 and 8.2 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen figures. Last night’s episode, up 14% from the week before, comes in as the series’ highest-rated episode since November. At 8 p.m., a new “The Simpsons” (3.1/9, 6.6 million) was up one-tenth of a rating point from last week, as was “American Dad” (3.0/7, 6 million) at 9:30 p.m. Fox ran encore episodes of “American Dad” and “King of the Hill” in the 7 p.m. hour and “The Simpsons” at 8:30 p.m.
CBS had 17 minutes of NCAA men’s basketball coverage overrun into the 7 p.m. hour, giving “60 Minutes” a 3.3 /10 (13.4 million). “The Amazing Race” (3.8/10, 13 million) was up 6% from its performance last week. “Cold Case” (2.8/7, 11.7 million) was up 16% from last week, when the show aired mostly in the 10 p.m. hour due to NCAA runover. At 10 p.m. “The Unit” scored a 2.5/6 (10.3 million). Due to the nature of live coverage, figures for CBS may change once NCAA runover is factored into final numbers released later today.
NBC had some runover from the Arnold Palmer Invitational, scoring a 2.2/7 (9.1 million). “Kings” (1.3/3, 4.4 million) remained flat from last week’s episode, while a two-hour “Celebrity Apprentice” (3.2/8, 8.5 million) was up 7%. NBC’s final figures also are likely to change in the final Nielsen numbers due to the golf overrun.
ABC kicked off its night with “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (2.3/7, 8.1 million), followed by a two-hour “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (3.5/9, 10.8 million). Both shows were up from last week’s performances (up 21% and 9%, respectively). At 10 p.m. “Desperate Housewives” was a repeat.
The CW aired a repeat of “Jericho” and the film “War Games.”
For the night: CBS shot to the top with a 3.1/8 (12.1 million), followed by ABC (2.8/7, 9 million), Fox (2.6/7, 5.4 million), NBC (2.5/7, 7.7 million) and The CW (0.4/1, 1.1 million).
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Comments (1)
Who'd imagine Family Guy would win Sunday night?
Funny thing is that for the Next Generation actors, they were heard by more viewers at one time than they were on the Next Generation series itself! TNG suffered by being a syndicated show instead of a network offering. But then, TNG would never have gone 7 seasons on a network.
Posted by Aaron R. | March 30, 2009 3:56 PM