FOOTBALL SCORES RATINGS VICTORY AGAIN

Football once again dominated Sunday-night viewing with a primetime overrun on CBS grabbing 17.04 million viewers in the 7:00 p.m. hour and NBC’s Sunday Night Football accounting for 15.93 million viewers, despite being impacted by ESPN’s coverage of the baseball game between arch rivals the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox. In an interview with today’s (Monday) Baltimore Sun, Sports Illustrated‘s media writer Richard Deitsch commented on the record ratings for football so far this season. “Sports really is the ultimate reality programming, because unlike a lot of the so-called reality programming, which is absolutely faux and staged, we truly don’t know how football games will end. And when you think of all the things going on with TV football these days, I think it really is the signature programming in American television right now.” Nevertheless, CBS was also able to make a strong showing Sunday night with a the season premieres of 60 Minutes and The Amazing Race, which averaged 12.07 million viewers.