PRO BOWL RATINGS REMAIN HIGH

Ratings for the often joked-about AFC-NFC Pro Bowl drew an average of 12.35 million viewers to Fox Sunday night. The figure was flat with last year when the matchup aired on ESPN — also in primetime. The previous year on NBC, the game drew just 8.8 million. The results underline the heady surge of interest in all things football over the past year — even when it comes to a game that that has widely been disparaged as an exhibition involving players whose reputation exceeds their recent performance, Sunday’s telecast was easily beaten among total adults by a Hallmark Hall of Fame drama on CBS, The Lost Valentine, which averaged 14.53 million viewers (but it ranked third among the key 18-49 adults demo).