Primetime Ratings: Football Down, But NBC Still Scores

With Sunday Night Football, NBC won the night’s broadcast ratings race, posting a 5.4 rating in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, with a 15 share. CBS seized runner up with a 3.5/10, then ABC showed a 1.4/4 and Fox a 1.2/3. NBC benefited from a barnburner that saw the Arizona Cardinals take down the Seattle Seahawks, but still fell short of last Sunday’s 6.3.

Bolstered by an NFL overrun, CBS saw 60 Minutes score a 3.2, up 3% from the previous Sunday. The program led with Scott Pelley speaking with survivors of the Paris terror attacks. Madam Secretary scored a 1.3, down 7%, The Good Wife was flat at 1.1 and CSI: Cyber had a 0.9, up 13%.

ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos rated a 0.9, down 10%, then a two-hour Once Upon a Time did a 1.6, up 7%, before Quantico registered a flat 1.3.

Fox’s Bob’s Burgers had a 1.0 before a Simpsons repeat, down 29%, then Brooklyn Nine-Nine at 1.3, up 8%. Family Guy was up 27% at 1.4, and The Last Man on Earth grew 20% to 1.2.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.