Primetime Ratings: Strong ‘Sunday Night Football’ Beats ‘AMA’s Easily

NBC won the Sunday ratings race, NFL action leading the net to a 4.2 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and an 18 share. That blasted the 2.6/11 put up by Fox.

NBC’s Football Night in America went up 37% to 2.6 and the pre-game climbed 21%. The game, Packers versus Niners, did a 4.8, which was 12% better than last week’s Bears-Rams.

Fox had Cowboys-Patriots creeping into prime. The OT did a 4.0 and The Simpsons fell 14% to 1.8. Bless the Harts shot up 67% to 1.0 and Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy both went up a tenth of a point to 0.9.

ABC did a 1.5/6. America’s Funniest Home Videos did a flat 0.8 and the American Music Awards a 1.7. Last year’s American Music Awards scored a 1.8.

CBS got a 0.6/3. 60 Minutes tallied a 0.7 (last Sunday’s 60 Minutes, with an NFL lead-in, got a 3.3) and God Friended Me lost 40% for a 0.6 while NCIS: Los Angeles slid 14% to 0.6. Madam Secretary dropped 33% to 0.4.

Telemundo posted a 0.5/2 and Univision a 0.4/2. The Exatlon Estados Unidos finale took up all of Telemundo’s prime and its 0.5 was flat. On Univision, Aqui Y Ahora grew 33% to 0.4 and the two-hour Reina de la Cancion season closer posted a flat 0.4. Cronicas expanded 33% to 0.4.

The CW got a 0.1/0 with reruns. 

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.