NFL Preseason Ratings Steady With 2014, ‘Big Brother’ Tops Night In Demo
There was no shortage of plays on cable last night as Kanye West announced on the MTV Video Music Awards that he was running for President in 2020 and host Miley Cyrus again earned the ire of the Parents Television Council for essentially being Miley Cyrus. Then there was the second week of new cable kingpin Fear The Walking Dead on AMC, among other offerings.
But on the Big 4 it was again all about the NFL preseason. The Oakland Raiders took a 30-23 hit from the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football (2.0/7). With the Raiders also suffering their first major injury with Menelik Watson likely rupturing his Achilles tendon in the 8-11 PM game, it was not a good night for the Bay Area team. For NBC though it was all kind of steady.
Last night’s game fumbled a mere 5% among adults 18-49 from the fast nationals of last year’s second NFL preseason game on SNF, when the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cardinals. Fast nationals to final numbers, the Raiders vs. Cardinals game is up the same percentage from what NBC and SNF received last year in the comparable game. All of which means this might end up being very close to even in the final adjusted numbers.
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Metered market numbers sometimes offer a clue and the Cardinals-Raiders battle pulled in a 5.0/9, which is up 4% from the second SNF preseason game of the 2014-15 season. Compared to the final numbers of last week’s Tennessee Titans win over the St. Louis Rams on Fox, last night’s game on NBC is up 15% in early numbers. The SNF game is also up 18% fast nationals to final numbers but that comparison is far from apples to apples without the adjustment. No surprise, NBC easily won Sunday with 1.8/5 rating and 5.8 million viewers.
As things stand, SNF was not the top rated show of Sunday night – that honor goes to Big Brother (2.1/7). Up 5% from last week, the demo result is the best Sunday return for the veteran CBS reality show this season.
Over on ABC, Bachelor In Paradise (1.3/4) was even with last week in the key demo. The unscripted romance series did see a 5% rise in viewership to hit an all-time Sunday high of 4.4 million. The season finale of Save My Life: Boston Trauma (0.7/2) was also even – with its last original of two weeks ago.
With a NFL preseason preemption at the beginning of the night, Fox was all encores Sunday. The CW aired local programming.
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