Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (primetime overrun & Sunday Night Football) and CBS (1 hr 15 min. primetime football overrun) 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 | 4.8/12 | 4.0/10 | 3.2/8 | 3.2/8 | 0.8/2 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 4.3/12 | 2.8/8 | 3.7/11 | 2.5/7 | 0.8/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 12.537 | 13.843 | 6.643 | 10.369 | 2.065 |
Of course NBC and Sunday Night Football won on Sunday night, but an hour and fifteen minute football overrun into primetime gave CBS a huge boost into second place overall for the night, as Fox and ABC were neck and neck for third.
These fast affiliate ratings for Sunday are a mess right now because of the CBS primetime football overrun (of 1:15) which gave a gigantic boost to their early evening numbers, but completely scrambled the ratings table. NBC also had a football overrun, but I'm not sure how long it was. It will be hard to untangle the results for CBS until the final ratings are in this afternoon, but based on the 10:30 numbers, I wouldn't wait for good news for Three Rivers. And Cold Case was pre-empted completely.
NBC's Sunday Night Football Bears/Falcons contest delivered a 6.1 adults 18-49 rating for the primetime portion in the fast affiliate ratings, that's up from last weeks Colts/Titans game which delivered a 5.5 rating.
With football causing all the ratings hub-bub, ABC and Fox ratings held only a bit of excitement.
The Simpsons annual "Treehouse of Horror" was up 5% over the same night last year to a 4.1 adults 18-49 rating. The Cleveland Show was down a tick in the 18-49 demo from last week. A repeat Family Guy was down 0.4 18-49 ratings points from a new episode last week, as was a new American Dad.
ABC's lineup was very stable, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was flat vs. last week, Desperate Housewives was down a tick (0.1) to a 4.6 18-49 rating, and Brothers & Sisters was up 0.2 ratings points to a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | CBS | Football Overrun | 6.3 | 19 | 20.107 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.1 | 6 | 5.956 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 1.7 | 5 | 6.937 | |
| FOX | Brothers | 1.7 | 5 | 4.465 | |
| 7:30 | CBS | Football Overrun | 6.7 | 19 | 21.519 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.3 | 6 | 6.022 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 2.2 | 6 | 8.658 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons (repeat) | 2.1 | 6 | 4.616 | |
| 8:00 | CBS | Overrun/60 Minutes | 5.2 | 13 | 18.082 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 4.1 | 10 | 10.899 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons | 4.1 | 11 | 8.588 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 2.7 | 7 | 9.528 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Bears v. Falcons | 5.6 | 13 | 14.638 |
| FOX | The Cleveland Show | 3.8 | 9 | 7.747 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 3.4 | 8 | 13.937 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 3.4 | 8 | 11.227 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Bears v. Falcons | 6.1 | 14 | 15.978 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.6 | 11 | 13.38 | |
| FOX | Family Guy (repeat) | 4.2 | 10 | 8.236 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes / Amazing Race | 3.1 | 7 | 12.011 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Bears v. Falcons | 6.1 | 14 | 16.023 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.6 | 11 | 13.692 | |
| FOX | American Dad | 3.1 | 7 | 6.204 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race | 2.8 | 7 | 9.408 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Bears v. Falcons | 6.1 | 15 | 15.248 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.4 | 8 | 10.289 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race / Three Rivers | 2.4 | 6 | 8.804 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Bears v. Falcons | 6.4 | 17 | 15.53 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.0 | 8 | 9.241 | |
| CBS | Three Rivers | 1.7 | 5 | 6.878 |
-
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.
Brothers is improving, after the low premiere numbers, I think if it keeps above the 3.0 then it will definately be renewed.
Is that the 1st time TR went that high? What happened to Cold Case?
Very low numbers for The Simpsons, considering last year’s Treehouse of Horrors got 4 millions more. And why on earth was FG at 9 a repeat?
I did watched cold case at 10pm, why is that?
@5506, Three Rivers will be adjusted in the final numbers. It did’nt start until about 10:15, so there is some Amazing Race overrun in it’s numbers.
For The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XX (20) I would say not bad really. Why did it show last night instead in 2 weeks?
I guess FOX wanted a Halloween-type themed episode of Family Guy, so they aired that instead. What is amazing is how well the rerun did.
And is it just me, or is Brothers doing better on Sundays than Fridays?
Because FOX realized that they can show the Halloween episode…oh in October.
The Housewives are doing terrific against football Good for them
Simpsons was up from last week! Did Family Guy really get a 4.2 on a repeat? Too bad about American Dad, down to a 3.1, which is reasonable considering Family Guy was a repeat.
I think Family Guy repeated cause they are running two new next week. Also this is the first year in a long time the Treehouse episode didn’t air in November so people might not of known.
@5506: The football delay will only scramble the Atlantic & Central time zone reporting. (Maybe Mountain, I’ve never looked into how their feed works.) If you’re on the West Coast, NFL is over by the time primetime programming gets started.
@5506, Cold Case was not aired on the East Coast due to the football overrun. I don’t know what aired on at 10pm on the west coast, but it was probably some rerun.
Is it because i live in the West Coast?
Poor Cold Case.
Solid numbers for ABC save for America’s Funnies Home Videos
I guess Amazing Race’s demo is around 2.6 to 2.9
Brothers should remain at Sundays and let Til Death have back to back episodes on Friday
A bit worried for Brothers & Sisters now. the numbers have never gone to 3.0 before or am I wrong ? Still I think it’s the best performer across all networks for a 10pm slot right ?
v. good numbers for the housewives against football!
I realize everybody to the left of Pat Buchanan hates Murdoch and his network, but it seems funny ( ha ha and ah ha ) that the fact a repeat of Family Guy was not that far behind a first run of DH, and that fact won’t be talked about much, yet the same people who see a half a % point bump up for an ABC show over a theree or four month period act like Mickey Mouse just stormed Omaha Beach.
The CC that aired in the Mountain and Pacific time zones was a repeat.
Bill/Robert check the TV by the Numbers twitter feed, the link for this news directs to the October 4 ratings not for the October 18 ratings
@Ali Private Practice is the best 10pm performer and Brothers & Sisters has fallen to a 2.9 before.