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NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ Is Way Down, But It’s Still Enough to Win the Demo

Dec 2, 2013  •  Post A Comment

NBC saw viewer interest plunge for its "Sunday Night Football" broadcast, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that Sunday’s game between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins delivered a preliminary 5.4 average rating in the demo. That was off from an 8.8 average for the game a week earlier between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos.

Still, NBC won the night in the 18-49 demo, although CBS, which got a bump from football overrun, came out on top in total viewers.

The report notes that the numbers are preliminary and subject to more than the usual adjustments due to the nature of live programming.

CBS scored a football-inflated 3.4 average in viewers 18-49 for "60 Minutes," well above the 1.6 the show had a week earlier. "The Amazing Race" came in with a 1.9, up three-tenths from last week, while "The Good Wife" also rose three-tenths, to a 1.6. "The Mentalist" slipped one-tenth to a 1.5.

Fox aired a mix of repeats and originals, with a fresh episode of "Bob’s Burgers" falling three-tenths from a week ago to a 1.6 in 18-49 while "American Dad" dipped two-tenths to a 1.7.

ABC saw "America’s Funniest Home Videos" slip two-tenths to a 1.2 in adults 18-49 while "Once Upon a Time" remained at a series-low 1.9. The two-hour special "Christmas in Conway" settled for a 1.1.

For prime time overall, NBC led the way in the 18-49 demo with a 4.4 average, followed by CBS (3.7 average), Fox (1.5), ABC (1.3) and Univision (0.8). CBS took the top spot in total viewers with 16.0 million, ahead of NBC (12.6 million), ABC (6.6 million), Fox (3.4 million) and Univision (2.4 million).

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2 Comments

  1. People are travelling on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That is likely to impact ratings. Also the Giants and Redskins was not as big a matchup this season as in the past. It had almost no impact on the playoff picture.

  2. Exactly right; intelligent observation.
    This week’s game between the Saints and Panthers will be smokin’for NBC!

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