The pigskin was flying as RGIII’s team was no match for the Boys in Jerry’s Palace on ‘Sunday Night Football’ as 19.65 million viewers made NBC #1 on Sunday evening. Only ’60 Minutes’, which drew 10+ million viewers, was able to finish in eight figures alongside ‘SNF’ for the evening on the broadcast networks.
The #2 program for Sunday evening was AMC’s season debut of ‘The Walking Dead’ which pulled in an astounding 16.1 million viewers. To see what that did for AMC overall for the evening will be posted when the complete cable ratings for Sunday are available.
Continuing on the broadcast network side, FOX came in a strong #2 with a run over of the late NFL afternoon game between the New Orleans Saints losing in the last seconds to the New England Patriots then Major League Baseball’s American League Championship Series’ Game 2, pulling in an average of 8.26 million for the evening. But the Detroit Tigers/Boston Red Sox battle had the possibility of drawing even more as what appeared to be a runaway victory for the Tigers was miraculously turned around by an eighth inning grand slam home run by Poppy then pulled out victory in a walk off in the bottom of the ninth. The Fantasy of Fenway continued. Unfortunately, there was major tune out after beginning with 9.01 million fans before the blowout forced viewers away. While many had tuned out, the game finished with 6.58 million fans at 1030P watching the classic turnaround to victory for Bostonians. It was a day to remember for Boston and FOX in Boston.
CBS finished #3 as ’60 Minutes’ drew 10.58 million at 7P; ‘The Amazing Race’ with 8.07 million finished in third position for the 8P time slot; ‘The Good Wife’ picked up a bit with 8.36 million (again third in the time slot at 9P) and ‘The Mentalist’ increasing to 9.35 million viewers at 10P, finishing second in that time period.
ABC had a real bad night as it finished #4. Beginning with the premiere of ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’, now in its 24th year, not many tuned in as it only generated 5.15 million viewers. The evening continued in last place for ABC as ‘Once Upon A Time’ at 8P (drawing only 7.36 million and down 23.33% from last season) and 6.02 million watching ‘Revenge’ at 9P, down 37.04% from last year gave evidence that this was not going to be a stellar evening. The Alphabet Network bottomed out with ‘Betrayal’s’ horrible performance at 10P, as it drew only 3 million viewers, down 40%+ from the program featured in this time slot last season at this same day (‘666 Park Avenue’).
For the record, NBC was #1 with 17.512 million viewers, up 2.8 million over the same time period last year. FOX finished #2 with 11.355 million due to the NFL overrun yet still finished with 8.08 million during primetime which would make it #3 from 8P-11P. However, if one includes the 7P-11P numbers, it finished #2, ahead of CBS. The Tiffany Network was #3 with 9.091 million dropped from their 10.41 million on the comparable night the year previous. Here is no question about ABC’s fate. It drew a miserable 5.382 million average viewers for the evening, placing it squarely at the bottom of the broadcast network lineup. It dropped 1.8 million from last year’s comparable day.
One thing we can take notice of, compared to last season, people are…
Switching Channels!
OVER THE POND: Sunday was a big day on British television as the results shot of ‘The X Factor’ on ITV won the evening with 9.21 million viewers. The first results show of the season saw a jump of 1.1 million over last week. While it aired at 8P, BBC’s ‘Downton Abbey’ drew 8.92 million at 9P. It too saw a modest increase over last Sunday. On BBC One, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, which aired at 715P, saw a jump of 200,000 over last week with 8.42 million viewers. ‘Antiques Roadshow’ at 8P drew 5.37 million followed by ‘By Any Means’ with 3.09 million at 9P. BBC Two’s ‘How To Build A Supercar’ pulled in only 1.03 million at 8P and ‘The Ottomans’ rose a tad to 1.04 million viewers at 9P. Channel 4 at 8P saw ‘Man Made Home’ draw 1.25 million. “Homeland’ increased the audience at 9P with 1.66 million. Channel 5’s telecast of ‘Angels & Demons’ brought in 1.65 million at 9P. On BBC Three, ‘Family Guy’ finished with 1.14 million at 10P and 963,000 at 1030P. ITV2’s ‘The Xtra Factor’ drew 567,000 at 9P and ‘Towie’ finished with 867,000 at 10P. Sunday’s big winner: ‘The X Factor’.
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