
Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (Sunday Night Football) and Fox (NFL overrun) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
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| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 5.6/14 | 3.9/10 | 3.4/8 | 2.4/6 | 0.9/2 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 4.8/13 | 3.8/10 | 2.5/7 | 1.6/4 | 1.0/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 15.096 | 9.448 | 11.029 | 10.286 | 2.356 |
Of course Sunday Night Football booted NBC to the ratings win on Sunday, but a football overrun lifted a mostly repeat Fox lineup to #2. The Amazing Race finale finished strong, up 19% from its Spring ’09 and Fall ’08 finales with a 3.7 adults 18-49 rating. ABC’s Brothers & Sisters hit a season high 3.7 adults 18-49 rating, up 28% from last week (also its highest rating since 3/1/09).
Fox’s average for the night was boosted tremendously by the NFL overrun into primetime (which was Cowboys/Giants in the Eastern and Central time zones). The BCS Selection Show earned a 3.4 rating, and that was enough to hold them at #2 in the average ratings for the night even with an hour and a half of repeats.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was flat with last week with a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating. Desperate Housewives was up 9% last week to a 4.8 rating, just slightly above the DH season average of a 4.71 rating.
Cold Case, freed of the Three Rivers albatross, and starting on time, managed a 2.2 rating, up 5% from last week.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football Game 13: Vikings vs. Cardinals delivered a 6.8 adults 18-49 rating from 830-11p, on par with last week’s Game 12 (Steelers vs. Ravens) which posted a 6.6 rating in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 7.6 rating from 8:31-11:50p in the Finals..
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | FOX | NFL Football | 7.8 | 22 | 20.927 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 2.3 | 7 | 6.777 | |
| ABC | America’s Funniest Home Videos (repeat) | 1.5 | 4 | 6.805 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 1.9 | 5 | 10.699 | |
| 7:30 | FOX | The OT | 4.5 | 12 | 11.104 |
| NBC | Football Night In America | 3.3 | 9 | 8.919 | |
| ABC | America’s Funniest Home Videos (repeat) | 2.4 | 7 | 9.583 | |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 2.2 | 6 | 12.920 | |
| 8:00 | NBC | Football Night In America | 4.7 | 12 | 13.402 |
| CBS | The Amazing Race (finale) | 3.6 | 9 | 12.665 | |
| FOX | BCS Selection Show | 3.4 | 9 | 8.572 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 2.8 | 7 | 9.565 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Minnesota v. Arizona | 6.8 | 16 | 18.892 |
| CBS | The Amazing Race (finale) | 3.7 | 9 | 11.980 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | 3.3 | 8 | 11.102 | |
| FOX | The Simpsons (repeat) | 2.6 | 6 | 5.571 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Minnesota v. Arizona | 7.1 | 16 | 19.315 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.8 | 11 | 14.638 | |
| FOX | Family Guy (repeat) | 3.0 | 7 | 6.130 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.4 | 5 | 9.932 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Minnesota v. Arizona | 7.4 | 17 | 19.701 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 4.9 | 11 | 14.774 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.1 | 5 | 9.499 | |
| FOX | American Dad (repeat) | 2.1 | 5 | 4.382 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Minnesota v. Arizona | 6.8 | 17 | 17.613 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.9 | 10 | 11.266 | |
| CBS | NCIS: LA (repeat) | 1.6 | 4 | 7.504 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | Sunday Night Football: Minnesota v. Arizona | 6.1 | 16 | 16.149 |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 3.6 | 9 | 10.497 | |
| CBS | NCIS: LA (repeat) | 1.6 | 4 | 7.092 |
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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.







