Primetime Ratings: NFL Opener Paces NBC

Football Night in America
(Image credit: NBC)

The NFL is back, and the season opener paced NBC to a giant win in Thursday prime ratings. NBC had a 5.2 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 29 share. Way off the pace was CBS at 0.6/3. 

Football Night in America started things off on NBC and led into the Kansas City Chiefs-Houston Texans. The Chiefs are the defending champs. Last year’s opener, Packers-Bears, gave NBC a 6.2 with a 29 share. 

CBS had Big Brother at 1.0 and Love Island at 0.4, both flat. A Bull rerun finished up prime. 

Univision scored a 0.4/2. La Rosa de Guadalupe shot up 67% to 0.5 and Medicos got a 0.4, then Dulce Ambicion a 0.3, the latter two flat. 

ABC and Telemundo both scored a 0.3/2. ABC had the two-hour Holey Moley finale at 0.4 and 0.3, down from the previous week’s 0.5. A Shark Attack special got a 0.3. 

On Telemundo, Exatlon Estados Unidos fell 25% to 0.3 and Todo Por Mi Hija climbed 33% to  0.4. Enemigo Intimo 2 grew 50% to 0.3. 

Fox got a 0.3/1 with Beat Shazam repeats. 

The CW rated a 0.1/1. Mysteries Decoded got a flat 0.1 and a Penn & Teller: Fool Us rerun followed. 

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.