Primetime Ratings: ‘Sunday Night Football’ Beats Emmys Easily

NBC was the big winner in Sunday prime ratings, riding Sunday Night Football to a 5.3 rating in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and an 18 share. Emmys-showing CBS was a distant third at 1.9/7.

The ratings are subject to change for live sports coverage.

Football Night in America did a 2.2, then the Packers-Falcons game rated a 6.4. Last week’s Football Night did a 3.8 and the game an 8.0.

Fox too enjoyed a football lift en route to a 4.3/15. An NFL overrun scored a 6.5, then Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville did a 2.6, down a tenth of a point from its premiere. That was followed by repeated comedies.

On CBS, 60 Minutes went up 18% to a 1.3 and the Stephen Colbert-hosted Emmys did a 2.1. Last year’s Emmys, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, did a 2.5. Last night's telecast drew 11.38 million total viewers, level with last year. Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale won best drama, and HBO’s Veep took top comedy.

ABC was at 0.6/2. After repeats of America’s Funniest Home Videos and Celebrity Family Feud, Steve Harvey’s Funderdome fell 25% to 0.6 and $100,000 Pyramid slipped 29% to 0.5.

Univision rated a 0.5/2 and Telemundo a 0.3/1.

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.