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NFL vs. World Series Steals Sunday Spotlight as Non-Sports Programs Come Up Short

Oct 28, 2013  •  Post A Comment

Sports programming took center stage on the broadcast networks Sunday night, as NBC’s coverage of NFL football got the edge on Fox’s World Series coverage — leaving the regular programming on ABC and CBS in the dust, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that Fox took the overall win for prime time, with its World Series game backed up by NFL overrun and postgame coverage. For prime time overall, Fox had a 5.1 average rating in viewers 18-49, followed by NBC (4.5 average), ABC (1.5), CBS (1.5) and Univision (1.1). Fox also won total viewers, averaging 16.7 million to lead NBC (12.3 million), CBS (9.1 million), ABC (5.5 million) and Univision (2.9 million).

The report notes that preliminary figures for Fox and NBC are unreliable due to the nature of live programming, and more than the usual adjustments can be expected.

NBC’s "Sunday Night Football" game pitting the Packers against the Vikings delivered a 5.6 average rating in 18-49 from 8:30-11 p.m. — well below the 9.5 preliminary number for last week’s game.

Fox’s World Series Game 4 delivered a 4.4 from 8-11 p.m., as the Red Sox evened the Series against the Cardinals at 2-2. The demo number was up from a 4.0 for last year’s Game 4.

In non-sports programming, ABC’s "Once Upon a Time" led the pack in Sunday prime, rising 5% from a week ago to a 2.2 average in the 18-49 demo. ABC’s "America’s Funniest Home Videos" hit a season high, rising 27% from last week’s series low to a 1.4; "Revenge" equaled last week’s season-low 1.5; and "Betrayal" inched up 11% to a 1.0.

CBS was paced by "The Amazing Race" with a 1.7 in adults 18-49, down 11% from a week ago, while "60 Minutes" lost 46% to settle at 1.5. "The Good Wife" equaled its 1.4 from the previous week, and "The Mentalist" bounced back 8% from its series low last week to record a 1.3.

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