NBC intercepts ratings lead from usual champ CBS with the help of NFL playoffs

Football helps NBC intercept ratings lead from CBS

NEW YORK — Postseason football scored for NBC, ABC and Fox in the ratings last week, but CBS held its own with its usual slate of scripted dramas and comedies.

The week’s most-watched telecast was the NFL playoff game between Philadelphia and Dallas, which drew 32.1 million viewers and helped lift NBC to an unaccustomed overall win in prime time for the week.

The BCS National Championship Game between Texas and Alabama, seen by 30.8 million viewers, gave ABC the week’s second-ranked program.

Fox did well with the Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl, not to mention the much-ballyhooed 450th episode of “The Simpsons” (ranking eighth for the week) and “The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special” (ranked 14th).

But CBS had the most-watched scripted shows: “NCIS” (ranked fifth) and “NCIS: Los Angeles” (in sixth place).

For the week, NBC averaged 10.3 million prime-time viewers (6.2 household rating, 10 share), the Nielsen Co. said.

Runner-up Fox averaged 10.1 million viewers (5.9 rating, 9 share), followed by CBS with 9.86 million (6.2 rating, 10 share) and ABC with 9.61 million (5.8 rating, 9 share). ION Television had 1.20 million (0.8 rating, 1 share) and the CW had 1.12 million (0.7 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision had 3.60 million (1.8 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.08 million (0.5 rating, 1 share), TeleFutura had 1.07 million (0.5 rating, 1 share) and Azteca had 170,000 (0.1 rating, 0 share).

NBC’s “Nightly News” maintained its customary leadership among the evening newscasts with an average of 10.7 million viewers (6.9 rating, 12 share). ABC’s “World News” was second with 9.4 million (6.2 rating, 11 share), but increased its audience by 710,000 viewers — the third consecutive week of gains for the newscast, which has been anchored by Diane Sawyer since Dec. 21. The “CBS Evening News” had 7.1 million viewers (4.8 rating, 8 share). ABC’s audience average is based on four days, omitting Thursday, when the newscast had lower coverage because of college football.

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 Jan. 4-10, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “NFL Playoff: Philadelphia vs. Dallas,” NBC, 32.12 million; “BCS National Championship Game: Texas vs. Alabama,” ABC, 30.78 million; “NFL Football Pre-Kick: Philadelphia vs. Dallas,” NBC, 26.98 million; “NFL Wildcard Post-Game: Green Bay vs. Arizona,” Fox, 25.18 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 21.37 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 18.07 million; “BCS Championship Pre-Game,” ABC, 17.28 million; “The Simpsons,” Fox, 14.62 million; “Desperate Housewives,” ABC, 14.03 million; “The Good Wife,” CBS, 13.98 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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