CHRISTMAS WEEK RATINGS DOMINATED BY FOOTBALL

The top five television shows on Nielsen’s ratings list for last week were all football-related. No. 1 was NBC’s Sunday Night Football coverage of the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, which drew 27.4 million viewers. No. 2 was NBC’s Pre-Kickoff football commentary feature, which drew 19.2 million. Fox’s overtime feature, the OT drew 15.3 million for third place, followed by NBC’s Football Night in America (Pt. 3) with 14.6 million. Rounding out the top five was CBS’s NFL Today post-game show, with 13.4 million viewers. Ratings for the evening news programs were down significantly as each aired on only three days last week due to holiday preemptions. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams led with 8.73 million viewers. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer followed with 7.62 million, while the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley trailed with 6.54 million. For the week, NBC led with an average 3.9 household rating and a 7 share, edging out CBS with a 3.8/7. ABC came in third with a 2.5/5 while Fox placed fourth with a 2.1/4.