Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (Sunday Night Football) and ABC (NASCAR), and CBS (NFL 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 | 4.5/12 | 3.2/8 | 2.7/7 | 1.2/3 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 4.2/12 | 3.8/11 | 2.2/6 | 3.2/9 | 1.2/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 12.944 | 12.135 | 12.686 | 5.522 | 3.233 |
The American Music Awards drew football-style ratings (5.5 rating for adults 18-49), but NBC managed to edge ABC in the nightly ratings averages. CBS benefited from an NFL overrun and Cold Case didn't seem to get much if any boost from moving to 9pm, while Fox's normally strong Sunday lineup got pounded.
While CBS' lineup and ratings were jumbled because of the NFL overrun, it does look like Cold Case averaged a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating, which is just above its season average of 1.93 (in final ratings), but below last weeks 2.1 rating (in fast overnight ratings). Break out the bingo cards, and tally the fan excuses!
Here's more information on the American Music Awards from an early ABC press blurb:
Marking its 3rd straight year of Total Viewer gains and 4th straight with young adults, the “American Music Awards” surged year-to-year by 2.0 million viewers (14.2 million vs. 12.2 million) and by 8% in Adults 18-49 (5.5/14 vs. 5.1/12). In fact the “American Music Awards” attracted its largest audience since 2002 and its highest Adult 18-49 number since 2004.
I am awaiting more information on the Sunday Night Football ratings, but NBC's nightly 18-49 ratings average fell from a 6.0 last week to a 4.8. Bears (pants or not) vs. Eagles is no Colts vs. Patriots.
Update: Sunday Night Football Game 11: Eagles vs. Bears delivered a 5.6 adults 18-49 rating /14 share from 830-11p, down from last week’s Game 10 (Patriots vs. Colts) which posted a 7.5/18 in the Fast Nationals before rising to an 8.6/22 from 8:31-11:46p in the Finals.
Presumably because of the youth focused American Music Awards (and vs. last week minus an NFL overrun), Fox's line up got crunched. The Simpsons crashed from a 4.2 adults 18-49 rating last week to a 3.3 rating. The Cleveland Show was down a tenth also to a 3.3 rating. Family Guy fell 0.4 ratings points from last week to a 3.8 rating. And American Dad was down a tenth to a 2.8 rating for adults 18-49.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | CBS | NFL Overrun | 6.0 | 17 | 20.614 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.3 | 6 | 6.922 | |
| ABC | NASCAR Ford 400 | 1.6 | 5 | 5.660 | |
| FOX | Brothers | 1.0 | 3 | 2.614 | |
| 7:30 | CBS | 60 Minutes | 3.4 | 9 | 16.268 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 3.3 | 9 | 8.792 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 2.0 | 5 | 6.454 | |
| FOX | Simpsons (repeat) | 1.9 | 5 | 4.043 | |
| 8:00 | NBC | Football Night In America | 4.5 | 11 | 12.445 |
| ABC | 2009 American Music Awards | 4.3 | 11 | 11.997 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 3.4 | 8 | 15.013 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons | 3.3 | 8 | 7.036 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Philadelphia v. Chicago | 5.7 | 14 | 15.888 |
| ABC | 2009 American Music Awards | 4.9 | 12 | 13.646 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race | 3.5 | 8 | 11.942 | |
| FOX | The Cleveland Show | 3.3 | 8 | 6.532 | |
| 9:00 | ABC | 2009 American Music Awards | 5.9 | 14 | 15.446 |
| NBC | Sunday Night Football: Philadelphia v. Chicago | 5.5 | 13 | 15.396 | |
| FOX | Family Guy | 3.8 | 9 | 7.386 | |
| CBS | Amazing Race | 3.4 | 8 | 11.615 | |
| 9:30 | ABC | 2009 American Music Awards | 6.3 | 15 | 15.670 |
| NBC | Sunday Night Football: Philadelphia v. Chicago | 5.9 | 14 | 15.559 | |
| FOX | American Dad | 2.8 | 7 | 5.520 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.0 | 5 | 9.041 | |
| 10:00 | ABC | 2009 American Music Awards | 6.1 | 15 | 15.179 |
| NBC | Sunday Night Football: Philadelphia v. Chicago | 5.6 | 14 | 14.322 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.0 | 5 | 9.342 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Philadelphia v. Chicago | 5.5 | 15 | 14.227 |
| ABC | 2009 American Music Awards | 5.3 | 14 | 13.030 | |
| CBS | Three Rivers | 1.6 | 4 | 7.652 |
-
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.
And now I have Violent Femmes stuck in my head.
Cold Case aired at 930ish due to NFL
I’m sure that the Cold Case and Three Rivers fans will blame footballs 30-45min overrun for the shows ratings. But if that was the case wouldn’t The Amazing Race be doing just as poorly as the other 2? The writing is on the wall for both Cold Case and Three Rivers, it says “canceled.”
Break out those Bingo tokens.
There’s always a reason why it’s not the show’s fault it didn’t do well on x night — at least according to a particular show’s fans.
Looks like animations performed badly.
Show ratings table now added to the post.
I was trying to find out how Animation Domination did same time, last year and realized 24: Redemption aired in its place.
Looks like The Cleveland Show is settling and it’s really not doing any better than King of the Hill did.
But the American Music Awards DOES make it a non-typical Sunday…
How did this week’s football game compare to last week’s? Last week had some 18 million viewers, correct?
Well at least Family Guy is number one again. Proving last weeks Simpsons win was due (obviously) to NFL lead in.
Fred, I think the combo of football and the AMAs really hurt fox last night.
sad Animation Domination was down. I don’t watch Cleveland anymore, but Simpsons, American Dad and Family Guy were all better than they were last week. Simpsons was probably the best episode so far this season.
Wow! TR got a 7.652 with a 1.6? Just doublechecking. That’s a big loss from CC to TR if I’m reading that correctly
Ouch, tuff break for Animation domination. The Combo of Fottball and the Ama really hurt them. But Simpsons was great last night.
Didn’t see Simpsons last night. Haven’t watched it for a while now. Is it better? Old Simpsons are probably the best TV ever. Sad to see it go massively down hill. Family Guy was great! Best since the season premiere. Glad to see it number one again in the lineup. By “again” I mean back to usual, discounting last weeks anomaly.
I’m not sure how much I’d rag on Cold Case/TR; the AMA had much higher competition at 10pm than B&S offers.
Don’t get me wrong, TR should have been canceled weeks ago, and CC should end this spring, but you can’t simply conclude “CC does no better at 9(:30)!”
Looks like any day now CBS should pull Three Rivers. The flip flop didnt work so, despite the fact they can burn the series off Dec-Jan, This would be a natural time to axe the series. CBS has outlasted its own record of November 23, 2005. As the latest time in the fall to cancel a series.
Tom, what CC will do in the future at 9pm is anybody’s guess. Last night, based on these admittedly jumbled numbers, it did no better at 9pm(ish), and that’s what’s written in the post.
Yes Tom. CC still did better than TR has ever did in that timeslot even with the demo if I’m not mistaken.