Primetime Ratings: Football Beats Baseball

NBC won Sunday ratings by a mile, Sunday Night Football setting up the network for a 4.2 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 17 share. That beat the 2.0/8 that Fox posted.

NBC had Football Night in America up a tenth at 2.1 and the pre-game down 12% at 4.3. The game, Packers versus Chiefs, scored a 5.1. It was a 12% drop from last week’s Cowboys-Eagles match-up.

Fox had the World Series. The MLB pre-game did a 1.2, before game five of Astros-Nationals got a 2.4. Game four got a 2.1 on Saturday. Houston holds a 3-2 series lead over Washington.

CBS scored a 1.6/7 and ABC a 0.6/2. On CBS, Browns-Patriots led into prime. 60 Minutes got a 2.3 (without the football lead-in last week, it did a 0.8), then God Friended Me shot up 50% to 0.9. NCIS: Los Angeles scored a flat 0.7 and Madam Secretary went up 25% to 0.5.

On ABC, special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown did a 0.7 and Kids Say the Darndest Things a flat 0.6. Shark Tank fell 17% to 0.5 and The Rookie scored a level 0.6.

Telemundo and Univision both rated a 0.3/1. On Telemundo, three hours of Exatlon Estados Unidos averaged a flat 0.4 and El Secreto de Selena tumbled 33% to 0.2.

On Univision, Aqui Y Ahora got a 0.2 and Reina de la Cancion a 0.3 across two hours. Cronicas did a 0.2. All three did 0.3s last Sunday.

The CW rated a 0.2/1. Batwoman got a 0.3 and Supergirl a 0.2, both flat. 

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.