FOOTBALL A RATINGS POWERHOUSE; BASEBALL NOT SO MUCH

Ratings for the third week of the broadcast TV season appeared to be setting a pattern for the rest of the season. Among total adults, NBC’s Sunday Night Football remained the most-watched show of the week, attracting 22.1 million viewers for the Washington Redskins/Dallas Cowboys game. Among scripted shows, CBS’s NCIS once again was tops with 18.3 million, followed by CBS’s The Big Bang Theory with 17.6 million. NBC’s Pre-Kickoff show preceding Sunday Night Football took fourth place with 16.0 million, while CBS’s NCIS: Los Angeles rounded out the top five with 14.8 million viewers. Somewhat surprisingly, Fox’s telecasts of the American League Championship Series between Detroit and Boston failed to make the top ten among total viewers, with Sunday’s Game 2 ranking highest at No. 30 on the Nielsen list. However. the pregame show on Sunday ranked eighth among the 18-49 age group, while the game itself ranked 23rd in that demo. The nightly newscasts did not appear to be getting much of a boost from the continued wrangling over the government shutdown. Indeed, each of the network newscasts was down from the previous week. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams again headed the list with 8.2 million viewers, down from 8.5 million a week earlier. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer placed second with 7.3 million viewers, down from 7.7 million the previous week. And the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley trailed with 6.4 million viewers, down from 6.6 million. Overall, NBC retained its title as the most-watched network with an average 5.9 household rating and a 10 share. NBC placed second with a 5.2/9, closely followed by Fox with a 4.8/8 and ABC with a 4.5/7.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research:
1. Sunday Night Football, NBC, 12.7/20; 2. NCIS, CBS, 11.5/18; 3. The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 10.7/18; 4. NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 9.3/14; 5. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 9.2/15; 6. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 8.6/13; 6. The OT, Fox, 8.6/14; 6. The Voice, NBC, 8.6/13; 9. Person of Interest, CBS, 7.4/12; 10. The Millers, CBS, 7.3/12.