NBC scores in last week’s ratings with football and ‘America’s Got Talent,’ Nielsen says

NBC scores in the ratings with football, ‘Talent’

NEW YORK — Football scored a touchdown in the ratings last week and, as usual, “America’s Got Talent” showed its talent for attracting an audience, according to Nielsen Media Research.

A pair of NFL games claimed the top spots in the prime-time ratings roster, with four other football-related shows also landing in the Top 10.

Meanwhile, editions of “America’s Got Talent” took fifth and 10th place as the NBC competition series neared its finale.

Among the early fall series premieres, Fox’s “Glee” ranked 19th place with a robust 7.44 million viewers. The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” ranked 40th, with 4.91 million viewers. And that network’s revived “Melrose Place” ranked 92nd, with 2.31 million.

Ratings and average audience figures for each network were not available Wednesday from Nielsen.

Among the evening newscasts, ABC’s “World News” was on top with 7.24 million viewers (4.9 household rating, 10 share). NBC’s “Nightly News,” the front-runner for nearly a year, was right behind with an average of 7.15 million viewers (4.9 rating, 10 share).

During this irregular holiday week, all three newscasts were measured head-to-head just two nights, both of which NBC won.

The “CBS Evening News” had 5.16 million viewers (3.6 rating, 7 share).

A ratings point represents 1,149,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 114.9 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Sept. 7-13, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships were: NFL Football (Sunday): Chicago at Green Bay, NBC, 21.10 million; NFL Football (Thursday): Tennessee at Pittsburgh, NBC, 20.91 million; Sunday Night NFL Pre-kick, NBC, 17.00 million; Thursday Night NFL Pre-kick, 15.53 million; “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 12.03 million; “Football Night in America” (Sunday), NBC, 11.99 million; “The OT,” Fox, 11.34 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 11.22 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.52 million; “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 10.06 million.

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by General Electric Co. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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