Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (Sunday Night Football) and Fox (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 | 5.4/13 | 4.2/10 | 3.1/8 | 2.6/6 | 1.1/3 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 4.8/13 | 4.4/12 | 2.4/7 | 1.5/4 | 1.1/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 13.999 | 9.464 | 10.035 | 12.613 | 2.804 |
Of course Sunday Night Football brought NBC the overall ratings win, while Fox's animation line up bounced back from last week's pummeling against the American Music Awards, and most of ABC's line up fell, maybe with a post-awards hangover.
Fox's entire line up bounced back from last week's fall, The Simpsons was up 27% to a 4.2 adults 18-49 rating, The Cleveland Show was up 6% to a 3.5 rating, Family Guy was up 13% to a 4.4 rating, and American Dad was up 18% to a 3.3 rating.
Most of ABC's line up went the other direction. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was down 19% (vs. 11/15) to a 3.0 rating, tieing its lowest rating of the season. Desperate Housewives was down 14% (vs. 11/15) to a 4.3 rating, its lowest of the season. Brothers & Sisters was down 6% (vs. 11/15) to a 3.0 rating. America's Funniest Home Videos bucked the trend rising to a 2.1 rating vs. a 1.8 rating last week (which was a 30 minute show)
On CBS, Amazing Race was down 8% to a 3.4 rating, while the movie A Dog Named Christmas scored a 2.1 rating, better that the usual dogs in that timeslot named Cold Case and Three Rivers.
Update: Following Football Night In America at 7p (2.2/6), 730p (3.1/8) and 8p (4.9/12), NBC’s Sunday Night Football Game 12: Steelers vs. Ravens delivered a 6.6/16 from 830-11p, up from last week’s Game 11 (Eagles vs. Bears) which posted a 5.6/14 in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 6.6/17 from 8:31-11:27p in the Finals.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | FOX | NFL Football | 6.2 | 17 | 16.708 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 2.3 | 6 | 12.772 | |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.2 | 6 | 6.457 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 1.8 | 5 | 7.493 | |
| 7:30 | FOX | The OT | 3.6 | 10 | 9.020 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 3.1 | 8 | 8.194 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 2.9 | 8 | 15.753 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 2.4 | 6 | 9.155 | |
| 8:00 | NBC | Football Night In America | 4.9 | 12 | 13.669 |
| FOX | The Simpsons | 4.2 | 10 | 8.991 | |
| CBS | The Amazing Race | 3.4 | 8 | 11.981 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 2.8 | 7 | 9.794 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Pittsburg v. Baltimore | 6.9 | 16 | 18.565 |
| FOX | The Cleveland Show | 3.5 | 8 | 7.195 | |
| CBS | The Amazing Race | 3.4 | 8 | 11.341 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 3.2 | 7 | 10.865 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Pittsburg v. Baltimore | 6.6 | 15 | 17.108 |
| FOX | Family Guy | 4.4 | 10 | 8.482 | |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.3 | 10 | 12.671 | |
| CBS | A Dog Named Christmas (special) | 2.0 | 5 | 11.672 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Pittsburg v. Baltimore | 6.4 | 14 | 16.109 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.4 | 10 | 12.625 | |
| FOX | American Dad | 3.3 | 8 | 6.391 | |
| CBS | A Dog Named Christmas (special) | 2.0 | 5 | 12.178 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Pittsburg v. Baltimore | 6.7 | 16 | 16.110 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.2 | 8 | 9.223 | |
| CBS | A Dog Named Christmas (special) | 2.2 | 5 | 12.566 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Pittsburg v. Baltimore | 6.6 | 17 | 15.784 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 2.8 | 7 | 8.457 | |
| CBS | A Dog Named Christmas (special) | 2.2 | 6 | 12.640 |
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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.
How sad is it that CBS got better ratings with a Hallmark movie than it’s gotten all season with 3R and CC?
Yay for The Simpsons, American Dad, and the ravens!
Darn football…
wow with the movie on CBS… older skewing movie ever?
Darn for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
IT WILL BOUNCE BACK NEXT WEEK
BIGGGG EPISODE!!!
Holly, my thoughts exactly about CBS’s ratings and it sounds like TR will be airing at 10:00 EST permanently now.
@cool, The movie might have skewed old, but skew is meaningless and I’m sure CBS is fine with the ratings.
of course they will be happy, a 2.1 is a improvement for them.
I’m sure The Jesse Stone films rate better but skew much older, A Dog named Christmas was in line with what Three Rivers and Cold Case get demo wise but much better ratings. Is CBS’ midseason plans due soon as I expect Sunday will have changes.
What happened to DH? This episode was so amazing last night.
Holly, the real dogs weren’t on CBS yesterday. Heh.
Cool, these ratings actually look young-skewing for a CBS movie.
CBS Sundays, after TAR, are just a mess. I doubt Miami Trauma will fare much better, either. Though I have no clue what CBS programs opposite football and DH. Though speaking of which…
DH is down like 0.5 from their usual numbers, yes? I suspect their average will be closer to 4 than 5 by year’s end. Maybe CBS’s strategy (younger female programming) will work, it just needs DH to age more.
Cleveland is rapidly dropping down to AD levels. And despite nearly all critics saying AD is the best of the MacFarlane family (no coincidence, it is also the one MacFarlane has least involvement with), TCS is the one getting the sweet positioning in Spring. Figures.
I hope CBS move The Good Wife to Sundays at 9pm next season.. I think they can beat DH in viewers, at least.
What a shame about the ratings of DH. This episode was great!
This episode was leaning more towards drama than comedy, though the jokes were really great. I love season 6 of DH so far, a big improvement over season 4 and 5!
I love the conflict between the scavo’s and solis’s. Also the mike/katherine situation is getting finally serious. And of course, angie, nick and danny (…tyler) are finally revealing things.
Can’t wait for the “winter finale”, it’s going to get more desperate!
Good to see Family Guy beat The Simpsons once again. Proving that the win a few weeks back was sdue only to NFL lead in. Probably won’t see that happen legitimately for a long time. Acually has it happened yet since Family Guy returned in 2004?
Ouch, Family Guy beat Desperate Housewives (again).
But congrats to CBS for the improvement with a Christmas special.
Ouch, Family Guy beat Desperate Housewives (again).
But congrats to CBS for the improvement with a Christmas special.
It almost beat Desperate Housewives in viewers.
TAR is hanging in there against super tough competetion. Good episode last night.
Does anybody know the kind of 18-49 ratings the Simpsons used to get back in like 1997? It obviously still does really well, but was there a Simpsons prime that was just out of control ratings?
@Jeff,
That comparison would violate the Gunsmoke Rule:
“The Gunsmoke Rule”: No comparing the ratings of any individual show this season to a show in any season except the previous one. “How could CBS have canceled Gunsmoke, for some dreck like CSI? Gunsmoke pulled a 40 rating in 1960!“
With the growth of cable and other factors, you just can’t compare ratings from 10 years ago to ratings today.