Primetime Ratings: Football, JonBenét Beat Emmys on ABC

UPDATED: Football beat the Emmys, with NBC’s Sunday Night Football pregame show at a 3.7 rating in viewers 18-49 and the game at a 7.4 rating, up from the previous week’s 6.7. That gave NBC a 6.0 rating in adults 18-49 for the night, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 19 share.

In metered markets, Vikings-Packers posted a 13.7 household rating and 22 share on NBC.

CBS, with a strong showing from true-crime special The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey, rated a 2.8/9.

ABC posted a 2.2/7 on the night. The Emmys red carpet coverage, live outside the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, did a 1.3, then the awards telecast a 2.5. ABC said the Emmys, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, averaged 11.3 million viewers, down 5% from last year. Andy Samberg hosted on Fox in 2015; the show benefited from a football lead-in.

Nielsen's fast affiliate ratings for live events, such as sports and awards shows, are subject to change.

On CBS, a football overrun at 5.7 led into 60 Minutes at 3.4, then The Case Of at 2.1. It was the first of a two-part series on Ramsey, the child beauty queen who was murdered 20 years ago. Amidst a spate of Ramsey-related specials on cable, CBS trimmed the special from three nights to two.

Fox aired repeated comedies, good for a 0.8/2.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.