Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for, CBS (US Open overrun) Fox (NFL overrun) and NBC are approximate and subject to more than the typical adjustments in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 6.2/16 | 3.4/9 | 1.6/4 | 1.3/3 | 0.7/2 | 0.5/1 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 5.8/16 | 3.4/10 | 1.1/3 | 1.0/3 | 0.7/2 | 0.4/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.51 | 7.66 | 6.25 | 4.47 | 1.82 | 1.19 |
The first Sunday Night Football telecast of the NFL season opened strong and propelled NBC to a big win. While the series finale of Fox's King of the Hill, matched its average from last season. And the last scheduled episode of Defying Gravity had a tiny gravity defying bump.
Last night's Bears vs. Packers NFL game on NBC delivered a 7.5 18-49 demo rating/18 share from 830-11p, up from last year’s Sunday Night season opener (Bears vs. Colts) which posted a 6.7/16 in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 7.4/19 from 8:24-11:17p in the Finals.
With the US Open overrun in the CBS schedule, it's hard to know exactly what Big Brother 11 did last night, but it seems roughly comparable to last week. Same with the finale of There Goes the Neighborhood.
Fox's King of the Hill finale posted a 3.0/8 at 8p and 2.8/7 at 8:30p among Adults 18-49. Despite the fact that the last original episode aired in May, last night’s two finale episodes combined in the 8p hour (2.9/8) to match the show’s average with originals last season (2.9/7).
ABC's Defying Gravity's not-exactly-a-finale (but last scheduled episode on ABC) ticked up slightly to a 0.8 demo rating from last week's 0.6.
With its Sundays running out the CW went with repeats of Vampire Diaries and Melrose Place.
We don't have either True Blood or MTV Video Music Awards ratings yet. They will likely be available reasonably soon by trade press or press release and we will post them ASAP.
Sunday's Ratings Details
7 p.m. (adults 18-49 rating/share, average viewership)
NBC: Football Night In America (2.7/8, 7.31m)
CBS: US Open overrun, 60 Minutes (1.6/5, 8.42m)
The CW: "Benny & Joon" movie (0.5/2, 1.38m)
FOX: Late National NFL Game & The OT (5.3/16, 12.42)
ABC: America's Funniest Home Videos repeat (1.5/4, 5.96)
8 p.m.
NBC: Football Night In America/NBC Sunday Night Football (7.2/19, 18.27m)
CBS: 60 Minutes/Big Brother 11 (2.3/6, 8.55m)
The CW: Vampire Diaries repeat (0.6/1, 1.35m)
FOX: King of the Hill series finale (2.9/8, 6.11m)
ABC: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition repeat (1.4/4, 5.09m)
9 p.m.
NBC: Football Night In America/NBC Sunday Night Football (6.1/16,
CBS: Big Brother/There Goes The Neighborhood (1.3/3, 4.58m)
ABC: Shark Tank (1.4/3, 4.30m)
FOX: Family Guy repeat (2.3/6, 4.92m)
The CW: Melrose Place repeat (0.4/1, 0.846m)
9:30 p.m.
FOX: American Dad repeat (1.9/4, 3.99m)
10 p.m.
CBS: There Goes The Neighborhood (finale) (1.0/3, 3.45m)
ABC: Defying Gravity not-exactly-a-finale (0.8/2, 2.53m)
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.
WOW!!WITH THE ORIGINAL RUNS AND ALL THE ENCORES THE VAMPIRE DIARIES HAS 8,2 MILLION VIEWERS.
BUT MELROSE PLACE FOR ITS THREE RUNS HAS ONLY 4 MILLIONS!!
P.S. you post the ratings very nice today!!
It was a good game last night, with two strong defensive teams. Next week should be huge with the Giants and Cowboy$.
“Shark Tank” did pretty well, all things considered.
However, once it moves to Tuesdays…..it’ll be LUCKY to get “Defying Gravity”-esque numbers
I think that Melrose and vampire in this second encore have great results. In the first too for a show of the cw.
I can’t believe no one commented on how well King of the Hill did. It was a very good ending to the show. The finale (8:30-9) brought all the neighbors together for a big cookout, kind of a farewell send off. After 13 years, the Hills are gone. You will be missed.
Diaries is a top, melrose is a big flop. cw must see this!
Do we know how well King of the Hill did with 18-34?
George, as usual, please turn off your caps locks.
So will this be the last week that CW’s ratings are reported on a Sunday? Or next week?
Next Week i think.
I think that Diaries might be the this year’s Bionic Woman. Heavy duty promotion, and ridding on the coattails of Twilight, gives it a huge start, but it is really has bad as Melrose. Who the hell casts a woman that looks like Victoria Principal, after the plastic surgery, to play a teen?
huddy, it was a decent showing for KotH, but not spectacular. Not horrible either. Probably why no one commented on it.
at julia
sorry ,sorry!!!!!!
“ABC’s Defying Gravity’s not-exactly-a-finale (but last scheduled episode on ABC) ticked up slightly to a 0.8 demo rating from last week’s 0.6″
It was announced as the Season Finale last night by a voice over just before it began. There are reports it’s been cancelled but the official press release will not be out till later today.
Guess Fox Should Have Nevar Cancelled King Of The Hill With A rating Like That And Very Little Promotion.
Before you praise KOTH’s ratings too much, take a look at its 7pm lead-in.
Defying Gravity was actually good for a change. If the show was more like that it would have been getting higher numbers.
No surprise form football helping Fox and NBC for Sunday. Next week NBC will get much higher numbers with Dallas and NY playing.
King of the Hill was a decent episode, I admitting stopped watching years ago as it got boring. But good sendoff.
Some guy named John
Again every one knows scifi shows can take a bit of time to get running. Dollhouse was the same, in fact the only truly excellent episode of that show was straight DVD movie, or episode 13. Defying have been getting better week by week and now the crew finally know the big secret and arriving at there first destination.
Shame it was one of the two best shows on TV.
An it did not stand a chance really once CTV started airing there episodes 2days before ABC.
If ABC had a celebrity edition of Wipeout, I think the ratings would be similar to last night’s football game.
For now, I wonder if AGT-Wednesday (w/ Susan Boyle) and Shaq vs. Michael Phelps on Tuesday will both be able to crack a 4.0 A18-49 rating.
Defying Gravity was actually pretty good last night. Its pacing was much better and the story actually went somewhere. Figures that was the last episode we will ever see. I honestly can’t blame ABC at all. Yes, some shows take a little longer to find their footing but anyone in this business has an idea that if they take too long the networks aren’t going to sit around patiently while they bleed viewers,
Fall season starts next mondayy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!