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CBS Outdraws NBC’s Football-Fueled Prime-Time Lineup in Total Viewers

Nov 4, 2013  •  Post A Comment

CBS’s prime-time lineup saw its numbers surge Sunday night, with the network coming out on top in total viewers — even against NBC’s powerhouse "Sunday Night Football" — based on Nielsen overnights. NBC still took a comfortable win in the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that CBS got a bump from its own football coverage, recording a 6.6 average in the 18-49 demo for the 7 p.m. hour, the first hour of prime time, with a weighty average of 23.11 million total viewers in the hour for football overrun — well above anything else in broadcast prime.

CBS’s "60 Minutes" kept the network’s hot streak going at 8 p.m. with 15.09 million total viewers and a 3.2 average in 18-49 — soaring above the 1.3 recorded a week earlier. "The Amazing Race" turned in a 2.0 in the demo at 9 p.m., up two-tenths of a point from a week ago, and "The Good Wife" equaled its season high with a 1.6, also up two-tenths.

NBC’s "Sunday Night Football" finished easily as the top show of the night in the 18-49 demo, as usual, with a 5.7 average rating from 8:30-11 p.m. That number was up one-tenth of a point from the previous week. The program also delivered 15.34 million total viewers.

Fox put up a mix of repeats and originals and wound up in third place. "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" led the way among the fresh programs, both with 2.5 averages in the 18-49 demo — a loss of a half-point from the previous original for "The Simpsons," with "Family Guy" holding steady. "Bob’s Burgers" dipped one-tenth to a 1.8 and "American Dad" slipped two-tenths to a 1.9.

ABC settled for fourth place overall, even as most of its lineup showed improvement. "Once Upon a Time" ticked up one-tenth from last week to a 2.3 in viewers 18-49, "Revenge" climbed three-tenths to a 1.7 and "Betrayal" inched up one-tenth to a 1.0, while "America’s Funniest Home Videos" equaled last week’s season high, a 1.4.

For prime time overall, NBC led the way in the 18-49 demo with a 4.6 average rating, followed by CBS (3.3 average), Fox (1.9), ABC (1.6) and Univision (1.2). CBS claimed a win in total viewers with 14.4 million, ahead of NBC (12.6 million), ABC (6.1 million), Fox (4.3 million) and Univision (3.4 million).

The report notes that numbers for NBC and CBS are subject to significant adjustments due to the nature of live programming.

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One Comment

  1. I have long been predicting that the next bubble to burst will be the amount of money that the NFL and sports leagues in general are going to be paid for the broadcast rights. This is amazing. “The Walking Dead” beat NFL in the Demo and now CBS in total viewers and the demo. NBC took the easy way out in my opinion and this is another reason why the network has been horrible with developing new shows and of course, canceling Jay Leno. It seems that every network head who fails elsewhere gets hired on to another troubled network to save it. Hmmmmmmm.

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