Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (Sunday Night Football) and CBS (football overrun) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: rating/Share | 7.1/19 | 4.5/12 | 2.1/6 | 1.1/3 | 0.7/2 | 0.4/1 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 5.8/17 | 3.7/11 | 2.3/7 | 0.8/2 | 0.7/2 | 0.3/1 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 18.50 | 14.49 | 4.73 | 3.86 | 1.97 | 1.03 |
While the 61st Emmy Awards were up from the historic low viewership set last year, the Sunday Night Football telecast of the Cowboys vs. Giants in the Cowboy's new stadium was the big winner, along with NBC, for the night.
Last night football game also hit a number of heights for NBC (via NBC):
- NBC had the best fast affiliate primetime rating on a major network since the American Idol finale on May 20.
- It was NBC's highest Sunday average, excluding the Super Bowl and Olympics, since January 25, 2004.
- In metered-market households, it was the highest average rating ever for a Sunday Night Football game, and the highest primetime NFL telecast in more than 10 years (Broncos-Dolphins, 12/21/98).
The 61st Annual Emmy Awards were up from last years lows, but were still the third least viewed on record. Compared to last year's ceremony, the Emmys were up +6% in both households (from 8.2/13) and adults 18-34 (from 3.2/08), +9% in adults 25-54 (from 4.5/10), +11% in adults 18-49 (from 3.8/09) and added +980,000 viewers (from 12.34m, +8%).
Note that last night (9/20) was the CW Network's final national network Sunday night of programming, beginning 9/27 CW affiliates will begin programming Sunday night locally. I had earlier been confused and thought that next Sunday was the final one. My apologies.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | CBS | Football Overrun | 7.4 | 23 | 21.66 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.5 | 8 | 7.41 | |
| FOX | American Dad (repeat) | 1.5 | 5 | 3.86 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 0.8 | 2 | 3.36 | |
| CW | War Games: The Dead Code | 0.4 | 1 | 1.23 | |
| 7:30 | CBS | Football/60 Minutes | 3.9 | 12 | 14.35 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 3.9 | 12 | 10.66 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons (repeat) | 1.7 | 5 | 3.91 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.0 | 3 | 3.51 | |
| CW | War Games: The Dead Code | 0.4 | 1 | 1.51 | |
| 8:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Giants v. Cowboys | 9.1 | 23 | 24.26 |
| CBS | 61st Primetime Emmy Awards | 4.4 | 12 | 15.11 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons (repeat) | 2.3 | 6 | 5.11 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.0 | 3 | 3.77 | |
| CW | The Beautiful Life: TBL (repeat) | 0.4 | 1 | 0.96 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Giants v. Cowboys | 8.6 | 21 | 22.72 |
| CBS | 61st Primetime Emmy Awards | 4.6 | 12 | 14.80 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons (repeat) | 2.5 | 6 | 5.54 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.1 | 3 | 3.76 | |
| CW | The Beautiful Life: TBL (repeat) | 0.4 | 1 | 1.00 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Giants v. Cowboys | 8.6 | 21 | 22.72 |
| CBS | 61st Primetime Emmy Awards | 4.6 | 11 | 14.14 | |
| FOX | Family Guy (repeat) | 2.6 | 6 | 5.47 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.5 | 4 | 4.76 | |
| CW | Melrose Place (repeat) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.78 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Giants v. Cowboys | 9.2 | 22 | 23.66 |
| CBS | 61st Primetime Emmy Awards | 4.2 | 10 | 13.27 | |
| FOX | American Dad (repeat) | 2.1 | 5 | 4.49 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.3 | 3 | 4.03 | |
| CW | Melrose Place (repeat) | 0.3 | 1 | 0.72 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Giants v. Cowboys | 8.5 | 21 | 21.04 |
| CBS | 61st Primetime Emmy Awards | 3.8 | 9 | 11.67 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.3 | 3 | 4.03 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Giants v. Cowboys | 8.1 | 21 | 20.06 |
| CBS | 61st Primetime Emmy Awards | 3.5 | 9 | 10.94 | |
| ABC | King Kong (movie) | 1.0 | 3 | 3.56 |
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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.
