Although Sunday Night Football took top honors (and the pregame coverage also placed two slots), CBS thoroughly dominated the week taking fourteen out of twenty shows, and seven out of the top 10. A sadder week at Fox, which only placed House and ABC which only placed the Christmas classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. The Boston Legal series finale was close (#22 with 9.885 million), but it didn’t quite make it.
In addition to the New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys game, NBC also placed The Office and Law & Order: SVU.
Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 12/14/08:
| Rank | Shows | R=Repeat S=Special P=Premiere | Net | # Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000) | HH RATING (LIVE+SD) | HH SHARE (LIVE+SD) | 18-49 Rank |
| 1 | NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL | NBC | 23,053 | 13.7 | 21 | 1 | |
| 2 | CSI | CBS | 20,857 | 12.7 | 20 | 2 | |
| 3 | 60 MINUTES | CBS | 18,804 | 11.6 | 18 | 7 | |
| 4 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 15,588 | 9.5 | 14 | 5 | |
| 5 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 14,677 | 9.3 | 15 | 13 | |
| 6 | SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK | NBC | 14,195 | 8.5 | 14 | 4 | |
| 7 | HOUSE | FOX | 14,051 | 8.4 | 13 | 3 | |
| 8 | CSI: MIAMI | CBS | 13,787 | 8.9 | 14 | 10 | |
| 9 | SURVIVOR: GABON FINALE(S) | S | CBS | 13,766 | 7.8 | 12 | 8 |
| 10 | MENTALIST, THE | R | CBS | 13,695 | 9.0 | 14 | 28 |
| 11 | NCIS | R | CBS | 13,662 | 8.6 | 13 | |
| 12 | ELEVENTH HOUR | CBS | 13,400 | 8.7 | 15 | 15 | |
| 13 | CSI: NY | CBS | 13,328 | 8.7 | 15 | 22 | |
| 14 | SURVIVOR: GABON | CBS | 13,047 | 7.7 | 12 | 11 | |
| 15 | SURVIVOR: GABON REUNION(S) | S | CBS | 11,739 | 7.0 | 12 | 16 |
| 16 | CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS(S) | SR | ABC | 11,017 | 6.1 | 9 | 18 |
| 17 | LAW AND ORDER:SVU | NBC | 11,015 | 7.2 | 12 | 19 | |
| 18 | FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3 | NBC | 10,827 | 6.5 | 11 | 12 | |
| 19 | BIG BANG THEORY, THE | CBS | 10,504 | 6.5 | 10 | 17 | |
| 20 | HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER | CBS | 10,491 | 6.4 | 10 | 9 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
All numbers above based on live plus same day DVR viewing.
heh – Guess I’m just out of the loop cause I watch nothing on CBS except for How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. Apparently I’m just not as fascinated with procedural crime dramas as the rest of the country. Or people on an island eating bugs for money either.
I agree CT, except I actually don’t watch any CBS programming. It’s not because I’m biased, it’s just that they don’t have anything good right now. I don’t get why they’re so successful.