Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (Sunday Night Football) and CBS & Fox (football overruns) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: rating/Share | 4.9/13 | 3.7/10 | 3.3/9 | 3.2/8 | 0.8/2 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 4.5/13 | 4.1/12 | 2.2/6 | 2.6/7 | 0.8/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 12.761 | 7.485 | 11.717 | 10.087 | 2.036 |
NBC's Sunday Night Football topped the night, but Fox's The Cleveland Show opened large, and its whole animation block was strong. The Desperate Housewives premiere finished down 37% in the demo from last seaon's premiere, indicating trouble on Wisteria Lane.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football Game 3: Colts vs. Cardinals delivered a (5.6/14) from 830-11p, down from the record from last week's Cowboys/Giants game which did an (8.7/22) in the fast nationals.
Fox has to be pleased with the series premiere of The Cleveland Show. It is the highest rated new scripted series opener so far this season among Adults 18-49, posting a 4.9/12 among Adults 18-49. It outperformed last year’s season premiere of King Of The Hill by +44% among Adults 18-49.
In the rest of Fox's animation block, The Simpsons season premiere delivered a 4.2/12 among Adults 18-49, down from last year’s premiere (4.5/12). The season premiere of Family Guy hit a 5.2/12 among Adults 18-49 and outperformed last year’s premiere by +16% among Adults 18-49. The season opener of American Dad at 9:30p posted a 3.6/9 among Adults 18-49 and outperformed last year’s premiere by +13% among Adults 18-49.
ABC, so cheered by Wednesday and Thursday's results, was brought back to earth on Sunday with all its shows hitting their lowest premiere ratings ever. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at 7p (2.1/6) and 8p (3.1/8) fell 5% and 16% from its premiere hours last fall (2.2/7, 3.7/10). Desperate Housewives (4.5/11) crashed down 37% from last fall's premiere (7.1/16). Brothers & Sisters (3.0/8) was down 35% from its 2008 premiere (4.6/11).
Because of a football overrun until 7:16pm Eastern, CBS results in the table below are a jumble. At 7:30p, the season’s premiere of 60 Minutes posted a 3.1/9. From 8-10p, the end of 60 Minutes and the Amazing Race 15 premiere combined to deliver a 3.4/8, which is on par with last fall’s debut (3.2/8 on 9/28/08) and up from spring’s (2.6/7 for Amazing Race 14 on 2/15/09). The last 16 minutes of Amazing Race combined with the Cold Case opener for a 2.2/6, -19% below the 2008/09 Cold Case premiere (2.7/6 on 9/28/08).
Note that The CW no longer programs Sunday night on a national network basis. All programming is the responsibility of the local affiliates.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | CBS | Football Overrun/60 Minutes | 5.2 | 16 | 17.50 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.8 | 9 | 7.71 | |
| FOX | Football Overrun/Brothers (repeat) | 2.5 | 8 | 6.26 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (premiere) | 1.9 | 6 | 6.74 | |
| 7:30 | NBC | Football Night In America | 3.9 | 12 | 9.55 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 3.1 | 9 | 14.95 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (premiere) | 2.3 | 7 | 7.85 | |
| FOX | Brothers (repeat) | 1.7 | 5 | 3.73 | |
| 8:00 | NBC | Football Night In America | 4.6 | 13 | 11.96 |
| FOX | The Simpsons (premiere) | 4.2 | 12 | 8.21 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes / The Amazing Race (premiere) | 3.4 | 9 | 12.97 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (premiere) | 2.3 | 7 | 9.87 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Colts v. Cardinals | 5.5 | 14 | 14.67 |
| FOX | The Cleveland Show (series premiere) | 4.9 | 12 | 9.42 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (premiere) | 3.3 | 8 | 11.09 | |
| CBS | The Amazing Race (premiere) | 3.3 | 8 | 10.35 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Colts v. Cardinals | 5.6 | 13 | 15.24 |
| FOX | Family Guy (premiere) | 5.2 | 12 | 10.17 | |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives (premiere) | 4.6 | 11 | 13.35 | |
| CBS | The Amazing Race (premiere) | 3.3 | 8 | 9.98 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Colts v. Cardinals | 5.9 | 14 | 15.68 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives (premiere) | 4.5 | 11 | 13.13 | |
| FOX | American Dad (premiere) | 3.6 | 9 | 7.12 | |
| CBS | The Amazing Race (premiere) | 3.3 | 8 | 9.89 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Colts v. Cardinals | 5.5 | 14 | 13.90 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters (premiere) | 3.1 | 8 | 9.66 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race / Cold Case (premiere) | 2.6 | 7 | 9.71 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Colts v. Cardinals | 5.5 | 15 | 13.38 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters (premiere) | 2.9 | 8 | 9.00 | |
| CBS | Cold Case (premiere) | 1.9 | 5 | 8.38 |
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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.
