TV ratings: Sports doubleheader wins Sunday for FOX

By Rick Porter

October 26, 2009 8:55 AM

Fast National ratings for Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

The deciding game of baseball's American League Championship Series, along with the end of late-afternoon NFL games, propelled FOX to a ratings victory Sunday night.

FOX drew 15.8 million viewers and a 9.4 rating/15 share in households for the night (which will change a bit in final nationals because of the live sports broadcasts but won't budge the network from the top spot). NBC (11 million, 6.7/11) edged ABC (10.7 million, 6.7/11) for second place. CBS found itself in the rare position of fourth place with just under 10 million viewers and a 6.3/10.

FOX also led the adults 18-49 demographic by a healthy margin, with its 5.6 rating topping NBC's 4.2. ABC came in third at 3.3, followed by CBS at 2.2.

Sunday night hour by hour:

7 p.m.

FOX: NFL overrun (21 million viewers, 12.1/20 households)
CBS: "60 Minutes" (12.2 million, 7.9/13)
ABC: "America's Funniest Home Videos" (8.4 million, 4.9/8)
NBC: "Football Night in America" (5.5 million, 3.5/6)

18-49 leader: NFL overrun (7.8)

8 p.m.

FOX: American League Championship Series Game 6 - Angels at Yankees (15.8 million, 9.3/14)
NBC: "Sunday Night Football" - Cardinals at Giants (12 million, 7.2/11)
CBS: "The Amazing Race" (11 million, 6.4/10)
ABC: "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (10.6 million, 6.4/10)

18-49 leader: ALCS Game 6 (5.3)

9 p.m.

NBC: "Sunday Night Football" (14.1 million, 8.4/13)
FOX: ALCS Game 6 (13.84 million, 8.5/13)
ABC: "Desperate Housewives" (13.81 million, 8.8/13)
CBS: "Three Rivers" (7.9 million, 5.0/8)

18-49 leader: "Sunday Night Football" (5.5)

10 p.m.

FOX: ALCS Game 6 (12.4 million, 7.7/13)
NBC: "Sunday Night Football" (12.2 million, 7.7/13)
ABC: "Brothers & Sisters" (10 million, 6.7/11)
CBS: "Cold Case" (8.8 million, 5.8/10)

18-49 leader: "Sunday Night Football" (4.9)

Ratings information includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change, especially in the case of live telecasts.

More ratings at Zap2it: Daily, weekly and cable

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| Comments (73)

73 Comments

looks like after 4 hours of reality overkill on nbc and crime shows that are copies of each other ABC was the network to watch. Good for abc for still programming quality shows. DH and Brother and susters are so good this season... they are so Sasha Fierce.

MEOW | October 26, 2009 9:00 AM

MEOW, can't you just go away. NBC's programming was not "reality." It was sports. There is a difference.

Nate | October 26, 2009 9:09 AM

Three Rivers looks to be just as dead as The Cleveland Show in the ratings (again no surprise there).

The ABC street teamers keep saying how great ABC is but if it's doing so well, why is it losing 10% of its audience from a disappointing last year?

Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:12 AM

@Nate:

Good to see your posts again. )

CBS has a golden opportunity to build up its overall audience by programming Sundays more aggressively. NBC would be well-inspired to curtail Leno's show (don't look for them to do it since cutting back on Leno would increase the cost-per-show and thus make Jeff Zucker have to explain the whole sorry mess without being about to point to cost reductions).

ABC should have canceled DH after Season Two when it started to ebb in the ratings.

Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:14 AM

Please leave Three Rivers alone. It's a very good show.

Nick | October 26, 2009 9:14 AM

ABC sucks big time coming in last place!!! i guess people are not so Desperate to watch such bad shows. And its Odd to make a statement about The Cleveland Show's rating when it was not even on last night.

MOO... | October 26, 2009 9:17 AM

The reality is that good shows find their audience, no matter what the day (with an assist from the Pr Department)_ and bad shows fail, no matter where (even if a great lead-in can confuse matters again with an assist from the PR Department).

It's very sad that Saturdays are no longer available to try and find new hits, and the networks as a group are suffering the consequences of that state of fact.

Sadly, I don't think any current executive really understands that you have to try many new shows to find hits and not programming Sundays (and 10pm in the case of NBC) curtails your chances of finding the next big thing.

Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:18 AM

This last post was not mine (big surprise there!).

However, the salient data from today's ratings is that Three Rivers didn't work (and yes, it's no surprise ;) ) while Cold Case seems to have outlived its usefulness to CBS.

I'm not sure why anyone would talk about The Cleveland Show since it wasn't on... ;)

On ABC, Brothers and Sisters continues its unremarkable career out of the limelight by keeping just enough of Desperate Housewives declining audiences for ABC not to try anything that would improve the night (not a good idea - look at what happened to CBS' formerly solid Sunday this year).

Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:19 AM

only the post "Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:19 AM" ending with "CBS' formerly solid Sunday this year)." was mine, although all the others are re-runs of previous posts but don't quite apply as they are out of context.

I am still baffled as to why would someone do something like this (congrats zap2it for making this place into an unfriendly, hard-to-use place by your inaction).

In any case, this is my last post on this thread for the day.

Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:23 AM

Street Teamers stop re-running my previous posts! We must all pull together as a team and fight those evil Street Teamers!

Rena Moretti | October 26, 2009 9:28 AM