Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for CBS (NFL overrun), ABC (NASCAR) and NBC (Sunday Night Football) 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 | 6.2/16 | 3.1/8 | 3.1/8 | 3.0/8 | 0.9/2 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 5.5/15 | 3.6/10 | 2.0/6 | 2.3/6 | 0.9/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 16.541 | 6.379 | 12.227 | 9.833 | 2.264 |
On a Sunday when second place was a horserace, first place was not, as the Dallas Cowboys lifted NBC and Sunday Night Football to an easy win with an average 6.2 rating for adults 18-49 in primetime. The Cowboys vs. Eagles delivered a 7.6 adults 18-49 rating from 830-11p, up from the 5.2 rating for the Cardinals vs. Giants on Sunday 10/25/09 in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 5.9/15 from 8:31-11:42p in the Finals.
Perhaps the ladies like watching Tony Romo, because against the Cowboys/Eagles Sunday Night Football game ABC's women focused line up took a dive. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was down 9% to a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating. Desperate Housewives hit a season low 4.3 rating, down 14% from last week. Brothers & Sisters tumbled 12% to a 2.9 rating, also a season low.
Fox's special Seth MacFarlane night did about as well overall as its last Sunday night without sports (3.1 average ratings vs. a 3.2 on 10/18). However, the 9pm Family Guy's 4.0 adults 18-49 rating was down sharply from its season average 4.8 rating.
Because of an NFL overrun last night, CBS' timeslots and numbers are a mess. Although it seems clear that both Three Rivers and Cold Case did dreadfully, only this afternoon's final numbers will indicate exactly how dreadfully. I think you can check off "It was the football overrun" on your fan excuse bingo cards.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | CBS | NFL Overrun/60 Minutes | 6.0 | 17 | 20.967 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.6 | 7 | 7.613 | |
| FOX | Brothers | 2.3 | 6 | 5.718 | |
| ABC | NASCAR: Dickies 500 | 1.8 | 5 | 6.238 | |
| 7:30 | NBC | Football Night In America | 4.1 | 11 | 10.466 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 3.9 | 10 | 17.264 | |
| FOX | American Dad | 2.1 | 6 | 4.532 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 1.9 | 5 | 6.784 | |
| 8:00 | NBC | Football Night In America | 5.6 | 14 | 15.091 |
| FOX | Family Guy | 3.7 | 9 | 7.382 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes/Amazing Race | 3.6 | 9 | 14.658 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 2.7 | 7 | 9.569 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Dallas v. Philadelphia | 7.9 | 19 | 21.560 |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 3.3 | 8 | 11.317 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race | 3.3 | 8 | 11.230 | |
| FOX | Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show | 3.4 | 8 | 6.634 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Dallas v. Philadelphia | 7.3 | 17 | 20.167 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.3 | 10 | 13.454 | |
| FOX | Family Guy | 4.0 | 9 | 7.727 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race/Three Rivers | 2.8 | 7 | 9.922 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Dallas v. Philadelphia | 7.8 | 18 | 20.582 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.2 | 10 | 13.198 | |
| FOX | Cleveland Show | 3.2 | 7 | 6.283 | |
| CBS | Three Rivers | 1.7 | 4 | 7.284 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Dallas v. Philadelphia | 7.3 | 19 | 18.316 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.1 | 8 | 9.668 | |
| CBS | Three Rivers/Cold Case | 1.8 | 5 | 8.650 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Dallas v. Philadelphia | 7.5 | 21 | 18.535 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 2.7 | 7 | 8.434 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 1.6 | 4 | 7.839 |
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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.
Wow, I expected much more from Fox’s special Seth night. Glad to see that guy fail for once, though.
Yes! Fox is down because simpsons was not on last night.
Not bad for NBC
As this shows, perhaps a better timeslot can improve ratings in Fox’s case (Brothers–2.3 in the demo, 5.7 million!)
Something’s was wrong with FOX’s Sch.
Big hits for 8pm
Seth night was awesome no matter how bad the ratings were … we need 2 seth nights a week fox.
Not bad for Brothers — considering the show seemed dead already. It’s now Fox’s #1 scripted comedy… which isn’t saying much. I think Seth and Alex was incredibly entertaining. Give them an hour on Friday or Saturday night with some sketches and Family Guy bumbers and I bet it’d be a hit.
series low for Housewives, B&S and Cold Case.
Is this Sch. Correct for FOX?
It’s now Fox’s #1 scripted comedy… which isn’t saying much.
Yeah, I doubt they’re throwing a party over beating Til Death’s ratings.
Jeff, Fox was down because there was no baseball. If you look at the two weeks prior to baseball, 3.1 average for the night is right on par:
Oct. 18
Oct. 11
How is Seth a loser? Those seem like good numbers to me — it came in second in the time slot and retained more of it’s lead in from Family Guy than Cleveland did. Not bad, considering it was live action following animation and a totally different kind of show. I’m sure NBC would kill for a 3.4 for any of it’s comedies, besides the Office and likewise for ABC – Cougar Town isn’t even getting those numbers any more.
Good night for NBC, bad night for ABC.
Desperate Housewives is losing its supremacy at an alarming rate this season, though it still rules the scripted category on 18-49 ratings.
The real problem for ABC is the declining Brothers & Sisters. These numbers are way down from last season, and even from last week. Not even 9 million viewers? Less that 3.0 in the young demos? All the changes at the top are definitely hurting the show. As is the stupid decision to take the spotlight away from the Walkers and toward secondary and marginal characters like Robert, Holly, Ryan, David, the surrogate chick, Scotty, etc. Drastic measures must be taken to save this sinking ship.
What happened to The Simpsons?
Brothers better than american dad is very impressive.
except from tree rivers and cold case ratings, all other shows done weel last night.
Is that a series high for Brothers ?
love B&S…. hope they won’t cancel this show cause of the ratings… I still think the ratings are great for these sunday night show!!!
BTW, here in Brazil there’s a lot of B&S fans……
Julia, Thank you for clarifying that there was no baseball last night. Besides that Family Guy usually gets around 9 million with a 4.2 18-49, Fox’s wanted to put all Seth so they would think it would gain all 9 on the charts but it failed to do that.