Primetime Ratings: ‘Sunday Night Football’ Rebounds on NBC

Sunday Night Football posted a 5.3 rating in viewers 18-49, per Nielsen’s overnights, following a 3.4 in the pregame show. A week before, SNF did a 4.5, with a 2.3 pre-game. With the Seahawks-Cardinals game up 17%, NBC led at 4.9/14 share, ahead of CBS’ 2.3/7, Fox’s 1.3/4 and ABC’s 0.8/2.

CBS had a football overrun leading in to 60 Minutes at 3.2, then NCIS: Los Angeles at 1.7, up 31%. Madam Secretary scored a flat 1.1 and Elementary grew 14% to 0.8.

Fox’s Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons both did a 1.6; the latter posted a 3.1 last week, celebrating its 600th episode with a football lead in. Son of Zorn was down 33% at 1.0 and Family Guy off 25% at 1.2. The Last Man on Earth slipped 18% at 0.9.  

After a rerun of America’s Funniest Home Videos, ABC’s Once Upon a Time scored a 1.0, down 9%, then Secrets and Lies was off 22% at 0.7 and Quantico down 13% to 0.7.

Broadcast was up against the season premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC, among other things.

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.