NOBODY WATCHES TV ON SATURDAY — WANNA BET?

Who says there’s no audience for television shows on Saturdays? Demonstrating that massive numbers will tune in if they’re given something appealing to watch, CBS’s college football telecast — LSU vs. Alabama — attracted 20.01 million viewers, making it the highest-rated college football game since 2006. To be sure, NBC’s Sunday Night Football ranked higher. The NFL telecast was the most-watched television show of the week with 22.12 million viewers. (After football, the next-highest-rated NBC program was Law & Order: SVU, which came in at No. 44. The debuting Rock Center with Brian Williams landed at No. 71.) CBS’s long-running NCIS powerhouse also continued to perform mightily, scoring 19.71 million viewers. CBS once again attracted the greatest number of total adults, tallying up huge numbers for such other shows as Monday’s Two and a Half Men, Thursday’s The Big Bang Theory and Friday’s Blue Bloods. CBS was also the top-rated network for the week among viewers in the 18-49 key demographic group. In total households, Among the nightly newscasts, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams remained the leader with 8.67 million viewers. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer was about a million viewers behind with 7.65 million, while the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley ticked up slightly with 6.04 million viewers. For the week, CBS nabbed an overall 8.0 rating and a 13 share. ABC was a distant second with a 5.2/8. Fox placed third with a 4.9/8, followed by NBC with a 4.5/7.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research:
1. Sunday Night Football, NBC, 13.3/21; 2. NCIS, CBS, 12.2/19; 3. Primetime College Football, CBS, 11.5/20; 4. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 10.6/16; 5. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 10.3/15; 5. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 10.3/16; 7. NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 9.7/14; 8. The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 9.4/15; 9. The OT, Fox, 9.1/14; 10. The Mentalist, CBS, 8.7/14.