Primetime Ratings: ‘X-Files’ Rides Football to Big Number

Fox took the Sunday ratings derby by a mile, the NFC Championship game averaging a 14.3 in viewers 18-49 in primetime, with a 37 share. Football served up a huge audience for The X-Files, which started at 10:24 and did a 5.1 rating in 18-49 for the first half hour, representing 13.5 million viewers.

The rivals put up primarily repeats against football. ABC did have a fresh episode of Galavant, which did a 0.5.

CBS took second place on the night, riding an NFL overrun from its AFC Championship contest into the prime hours. It averaged a 1.2/3 for the night. NBC, airing the movie Bridesmaids, had a 0.8/2 and ABC a 0.5/1.

Last year’s NFC Championship aired in the afternoon, while the AFC title game rated a 13.9 in prime.

Fox has brought back X-Files after the first iteration wrapped in 2002.

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.