NBC SCORES AGAIN WITH SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

Thanks to its coverage of two Sunday Night Football telecasts — one of which was played on Tuesday — NBC shot to the front as the most-watched network among 18-49-year-old viewers last week. The Tuesday game, postponed from the previous Sunday because of blizzard conditions in the Philadelphia area, attracted 23.74 million viewers. The regular Sunday game drew 19.36 million. Games related to football telecasts also scored solidly. NBC’s Pre-Kickoff telecast on Tuesday landed on Nielsen’s top ten list with 14.51 million viewers, while Sunday’s Pre-Kickoff show registered 15.06 million. (Due to a ratings anomaly that resulted from the different sizes of the total TV audience on both days, each show tied for third place.) Fox’s NFL runover game on Sunday gave the postgame show The O.T. 12.28 million viewers, and NBC’s Football Night in America Pt. 3 also found a spot in the Nielsen top ten with 11.54 million viewers. Despite NBC’s huge football ratings on Sunday, two rival network shows also made the top ten. CBS’s 60 Minutes ranked No. 5 with 12.84 million viewers, while ABC’s Desperate Housewives followed in sixth place with 12.19 million. NBC also continued to dominate the nightly news ratings, once again attracting nearly 10 million viewers. All three networks showed significant boosts in ratings for their evening newscasts, which lined up on the Nielsen charts this way: 1. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, 9.99 million viewers; 2. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, 8.8 million; and 3. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, 6.35 million. For the week, CBS remained the No. 1 network among total adults with a 5.2 rating and a 9 share. NBC placed second with a 5.0/9. ABC ranked third with a 3.2/6, while Fox once again trailed with a 3.0/5.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research:
1. Sunday Night Football (Tuesday), NBC, 13.8/23; 2. Sunday Night Football (Sunday), NBC, 11.3/18; 3. (Tie) Tuesday Night Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 8.7/15; 3. (Tie) Sunday Night Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 8.7/14; 5. 60 Minutes, CBS, 8.0/13; 6. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 7.5/12; 7. (Tie) The O.T., Fox, 6.9/11; 7. (Tie) Undercover Boss, CBS, 6.9/11; 9. (Tie) CSI: Miami, CBS, 6.7/10; 9. (Tie) Football Night in America Pt. 3, NBC, 6.7/11.