NBC HAS BEST SEASON START SINCE 1997

As it did a year ago, NBC is starting off the new season way ahead of its competition — at least among the all-important 18-49 age group. Three shows were primarily responsible for the network’s success: Sunday Night Football, The Voice and The Blacklist. Those shows helped NBC lead its closest competition by 35 percent, its best Week 1 performance since 1997, when the network had Frasier, Friends, Seinfeld and E.R. in its lineup. ABC also showed improvement over last year in the 18-49 demo, thanks to a strong series debut of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and returning standbys Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy. CBS remained the most-watched network, but its total numbers were down 3 percent from a year ago among total adults (to 10.4 million) and down 8 percent in the 18-49 demo. The ramp-up to a government shutdown did not appear to affect ratings of the evening newscasts. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams remained well ahead with 8 million viewers, followed by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer with 7.2 million and the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley with 6.1 million. CBS won the week in overall households with a 6.5 rating and an 11 share. NBC placed second with a 6.0/10. ABC followed with a 5.0/8, while Fox trailed with a 3.6/6.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research:
1. Sunday Night Football, NBC, 12.5/20; 2. NCIS, CBS, 12.4/20; 3. The Big Bang Theory (Tuesday 8:30 p.m.), CBS, 12.1/19; 4. The Big Bang Theory (Tuesday, 8:00 p.m.), CBS, 11.4/19; 5. NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 10.2/16; 6. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 9.4/15; 7. The Crazy Ones, CBS, 9.3/15; 8. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 8.9/13; 9. The Voice (Monday), NBC, 8.8/13; 10. The Voice (Tuesday), NBC, 8.7/14.