Sunday Night Football, American Music Awards Ratings Drop
Sunday was not a good night for big event programming. “Sunday Night Football” on NBC saw the Green Bay Packers trounced by Washington, and a subsequent drop in the overnight ratings. In Nielsen’s preliminary ratings for primetime, the pummeling drew a 5.6 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and 17.08 million viewers. (As usual, the game extended to well past the 11 o’clock hour.)
The game’s overnight metered market household rating for the duration of the game, an 11.9, was up slightly over the same week last year (an Arizona Cardinals-Cincinnati Bengals match-up that drew a season-low 11.7), but well below last week’s Seahawks-Patriots rating (14.3).
On ABC, the American Music Awards averaged a 2.4 in the demo and 8.16 million viewers. That was down a nasty 31% from last year’s 3.5 demo rating and 11 million viewers, which itself was down from the previous year. However, the telecast was a vast improvement on ABC’s usual Sunday night, which has been hovering around a 0.8 demo rating in the last few weeks.
CBS’ lineup was pushed even further back than usual, so these numbers are subject to a larger than usual amount of adjustment because they include a blend of audiences for each show. “60 Minutes” starting at 8 p.m. drew a 2.1 and 13.24 million viewers. “NCIS: Los Angeles” averaged a 1.3 in the demo and 8.88 million viewers. “Madam Secretary” came in with a 0.8 and 6.92 million, including 14 minutes of “Elementary,” which didn’t start until 10:46 p.m. on the East Coast.
On Fox, two new “Bob’s Burgers” — one at 7:30, one at 8:30 — came in at a 1.0 and 1.2 in the demo, with 2.32 million and 2.44 million viewers. “The Simpsons” drew a 1.3 and 2.89 million viewers. “Family Guy” came in with a 1.3 and 2.72 million viewers. “The Last Man on Earth” finished off the night with a 0.9 and 2.04 million viewers.
Earlier this weekend, in Nielsen’s preliminary ratings:
Friday
CBS continued its Friday winning streak. “MacGyver” drew a 1.1 and 8.2 million viewers. “Hawaii Five-0” improved on that with a 1.3 in the demo and 10.01 million viewers. “Blue Bloods” weighed in with a 1.2 and 10.32 million viewers.
ABC’s “Last Man Standing” came in with a 1.1 demo rating and 6.47 milliong viewers. “Dr. Ken” ticked up to a 0.9 and 4.69 million viewers. “Shark Tank” drew a 1.2 and 5.15 million viewers. “20/20,” with its Gretchen Carlson interview, only came in with a 0.7 and 4.11 million viewers.
NBC’s “Caught on Camera” ticked up slightly to a 0.7 in the demo and 3.11 million viewers. A new “Dateline” drew a 1.1 and 5.09 million viewers.
“Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox drew a 1.0 in the demo and 3.12 million viewers. “The Exorcist” came in with a 0.7 and 1.73 million viewers.
“The Vampire Diaries” on The CW slipped slightly to a 0.3 demo rating and 940,000 viewers. “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” followed with a 0.2 and 520,000 viewers.
Saturday
Despite the return of Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump, Saturday’s Kristen Wiig-hosted “SNL” drew a 4.7 household rating and a 2.2 in the demo in Nielsen’s metered market overnights, down quite a bit from the previous week’s post-election 6.2 household rating and 3.9 in the demo. (Admittedly, the show’s best performance in three years.)
As a reminder, many of these shows will see ratings lifts of 50% or more once viewing within three and seven days is counted. However, most of those gains won’t translate to the guarantees networks make advertisers.
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