The programming slate last Sunday was heavy with key sports programming, which drew more viewers than any other programming across TV. NFL game windows took four of the top five spots. Fox' NFL national window was the most-viewed program across all of TV for the week. Packers-Vikings "SNF" topped World Series Game 4, but finished third for the week among all primetime shows behind a Tuesday episode of CBS' "NCIS" (18.99 million viewers) and a Thursday episode of CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" (16.99 million viewers) (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
|
VIEWERSHIP COMPARISONS FOR SELECT PROGRAMMING ON SUNDAY, OCT. 26
|
| PROGRAM |
NET
|
START (ET)
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| "NFL on Fox": Redskins-Broncos (88%) |
Fox
|
4:25pm
|
25,500
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Packers-Vikings |
NBC
|
8:31pm
|
16,893
|
| World Series: Red Sox-Cardinals: Game 4 |
Fox
|
8:13pm
|
15,975
|
| "NFL on Fox": (regional) |
Fox
|
1:00pm
|
15,500
|
| "NFL on CBS": (single) |
CBS
|
1:00pm
|
15,207
|
| "The Walking Dead" |
AMC
|
9:00pm
|
12,924
|
| "60 Minutes" |
CBS
|
7:00pm
|
10,081
|
| "The Good Wife" |
CBS
|
9:00pm
|
9,350
|
| "The Mentalist" |
CBS
|
10:00pm
|
8,825
|
| "The Amazing Race |
CBS
|
8:00pm
|
8,106
|
| "Once Upon A Time" |
ABC
|
8:00pm
|
7,231
|
| "Football Night in America" |
NBC
|
7:30pm
|
6,913
|
| |
|
|
|
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: CNN drew 288,000 viewers last Friday for the 10:30pm ET premiere of Rachel Nichols' new show, "Unguarded." For comparison, in the same window, ESPN2 drew 126,000 viewers for a repeat episode of "E:60." (
Karp). The show "placed fourth among newsies in its timeslot Friday night and made MSNBC's competing Alec Baldwin program look like a world-beater." Among adults 25-54, the show averaged 92,000 viewers, "which is about 30% lower than what CNN had been averaging in the time period this quarter" (
VARIETY.com, 10/29).
NOTES: Golf Channel averaged 84,000 total-day viewers in October, marking the net’s best October audience on record and the seventh time in 10 months that the net has set a monthly record. Meanwhile, NBCSN benefitted from the return of the NHL. The net’s October primetime viewership jumped 183%, as the net lacked any NHL games last October due to the lockout (NBC Sports Group)….TNT finished with a 3.3 rating and 5.4 million viewers for Bulls-Heat on Tuesday, marking the net’s best viewership on record for an opening night game. The rating is second-best all-time for TNT NBA opening night (TNT)….Oklahoma City-based KOKH-Fox drew a 28.4 local rating for last Saturday’s Texas Tech-Oklahoma game. That topped an 8.8 rating on FS Oklahoma for the Oklahoma State-Iowa State game, which marked the “second-lowest rating of the season” for OSU (NEWSOK.com, 10/29)….Univision Deportes averaged 83,000 viewers during primetime in Q3, outdrawing Fox Deportes (55,000) and ESPN Deportes (54,000) (Univision).
The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| "NFL on Fox": Redskins-Broncos (88%) |
10/27
|
Fox
|
4:15-7:30pm
|
15.3
|
25,500
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Packers-Vikings |
10/27
|
NBC
|
8:31-11:06pm*
|
9.8
|
16,893
|
| World Series: Red Sox-Cardinals: Game 4 |
10/27
|
Fox
|
8:13pm-12:00am
|
9.4
|
15,975
|
| "NFL on Fox": (regional) |
10/27
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:15pm
|
9.7
|
15,500
|
| "NFL on CBS": (single) |
10/27
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
9.3
|
15,207
|
| World Series: Red Sox-Cardinals: Game 1 |
10/23
|
Fox
|
8:06-11:26pm
|
8.6
|
14,400
|
| World Series: Red Sox-Cardinals: Game 2 |
10/24
|
Fox
|
8:04-11:22pm
|
8.3
|
13,429
|
| World Series: Red Sox-Cardinals: Game 3 |
10/26
|
Fox
|
8:02pm-12:12am
|
7.4
|
12,473
|
| "Football Night in America" |
10/27
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
4.1
|
6,913
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
10/27
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.1
|
4,700
|
| College Football: Penn State-Ohio State |
10/26
|
ABC
|
8:06-11:41pm
|
2.5
|
4,059
|
| College Football: Tennessee-Alabama |
10/26
|
CBS
|
3:30-6:52pmpm
|
2.6
|
4,028
|
| College Football: Texas Tech-Oklahoma |
10/26
|
Fox
|
4:45-7:30pm*
|
2.4
|
3,800
|
| College Football: (regional) |
10/26
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:51pm
|
2.2
|
3,330
|
| "The NFL Today" |
10/27
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.1
|
2,974
|
| "Golf's Best Of 2013" |
10/27
|
CBS
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1.0
|
1,384
|
| "College Football Today" |
10/26
|
CBS
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.8
|
1,172
|
| ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating |
10/27
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,135
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Puebla |
10/26
|
Univ.
|
5:55-8:00pm
|
0.6
|
1,005
|
| "College Football Countdown" |
10/26
|
ABC
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.7
|
979
|
| "World of X Games: Skiing Preview" |
10/27
|
Fox
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
732
|
| Red Bull Signature Series: King of the Peak |
10/26
|
NBC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
588
|
| "College Football Open Season" |
10/26
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
507
|
| Red Bull Signature Series: Vans U.S. Open of Snowboarding |
10/26
|
NBC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
448
|
| Dew Tour recap |
10/26
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.3
|
430
|
| World of Adventure Sports |
10/26
|
NBC
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
357
|
| Liga MX: Tijuana-Tigres UANL |
10/25
|
Aza.
|
10:30pm-12:33am
|
0.2
|
338
|
| Liga MX: Leon-Toluca |
10/26
|
Telem.
|
9:00-11:05pm
|
0.2
|
324
|
| MLS: DC United-Dynamo |
10/27
|
NBC
|
1:30-4:00pm
|
0.2
|
294
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| "Monday Night Football": Vikings-Giants |
10/21
|
ESPN
|
8:28-11:51pm
|
8.4
|
13,243
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Panthers-Buccaneers |
10/24
|
NFLN
|
8:30-11:28pm
|
2.9
|
4,602
|
| NASCAR Sprint Cup: Martinsville |
10/27
|
ESPN
|
1:31-5:45pm
|
2.7
|
4,316
|
| College Football: UCLA-Oregon |
10/26
|
ESPN
|
7:15-10:09pm
|
2.3
|
3,674
|
| College Football: Nebraska-Minnesota |
10/26
|
ESPN
|
12:00-3:32pm
|
2.0
|
3,128
|
| College Football: South Carolina-Missouri |
10/26
|
ESPN2
|
7:00-11:02pm
|
1.8
|
3,051
|
| "Monday Night Countdown" |
10/21
|
ESPN
|
6:30-8:28pm
|
1.9
|
2,370
|
| College Football: Clemson-Maryland |
10/26
|
ESPN
|
3:32-7:15pm
|
1.7
|
2,325
|
| College Football: Stanford-Oregon State |
10/26
|
ESPN
|
10:30pm-1:47am
|
1.8
|
2,228
|
| "NASCAR Countdown" |
10/27
|
ESPN
|
1:00-1:31pm
|
1.4
|
2,090
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES: * = Game began late to due lightning delay. Ended on Fox News due to World Series Game 3 beginning. ** = Full game ran from 8:31-11:25pm.
