Primetime Ratings: Fox Wins With Tight Football Contest

Fox won big in Thursday ratings, as booming Thursday Night Football paved the way to a 4.3 score in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 17 share. In second was CBS at 0.9/4.

The Cowboys squeaked by the Saints on Thursday Night Football, which occupied all of Fox’s prime. The telecast was up 30% over last week’s.

On CBS, comedy repeats led into a new Mom that fell 15% to 1.1 and Murphy Brown was down 11% for a 0.8. SWAT closed out prime off 13% at 0.7.

ABC did a 0.8/3 with holiday specials. Olaf’s Frozen Adventure rated a 0.9 and Toy Story That Time Forgot a 0.8, both down a tenth of a point from their showings last year. Wonderful World of Disney rated a 0.7 from 9 to 11 p.m. Last year’s Wonderful World did a 1.2.

NBC got a 0.6/2. Special Lego: Jurassic World did a 0.5 and Will & Grace a 0.6, then I Feel Bad a 0.4. Law & Order: SVU tallied a 0.7. All three series were down a tenth of a point.

Univision did a 0.4/2 and Telemundo a 0.4/1.

The CW too got a 0.4/1, with Supernatural at 0.4 and Legacies at 0.3. Both shows were flat. 

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.