Brian Damage
10-12-2009, 10:06 PM
ABC's "Desperate Housewives" has been the longtime Sunday ratings leader among entertainment programming.
But so far this season, another show has taken the top spot: Fox's "Family Guy."
What's happened is that "Housewives" has eroded in the Nielsens, while "Family Guy" has been bolstered by its new spinoff lead-in -- "The Cleveland Show," which replaced the modestly performing "King of the Hill."
Until this season, "Family Guy" has never beaten "Housewives," according to Fox. Yet for the past couple weeks, "Family Guy" has edged out the ABC soap.
Last night might be no exception -- the numbers are very tight -- but the preliminary ratings suggest "Family Guy" may once again be the king of the night, despite slipping from last week.
NBC's "Sunday Night Football" led the otherwise sluggish and somewhat inconclusive evening. The Indianapolis vs. Tennessee game (13.8 million, 5.5 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) was tops on NBC.
CBS was in second place because of some NFL overrun that disrupted its other shows in these early numbers: "Amazing Race" (10.8 million, 3.1) and "Three Rivers" (7.7 million, 1.9) were seemingly on par, with "Cold Case" (7.2 million, 1.7) dipping.
ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (9.8 million, 3.0) and "Desperate Housewives" (13.1 million, 4.4) both fell 12%, and "Brothers & Sisters" (9 million, 2.9) dropped 9%.
Without an NFL lead-in this week, Fox's comedies took hits -- "Simpsons" (7.5 million, 3.6) down 18%, "Cleveland Show" (7.8 million, 3.8) down 14%, "Family Guy" (8.9 million, 4.5) down 12% and "American Dad" (6.7 million, 3.4) down 6%.
Also of interest, Fox quietly added original episodes of "Brothers" (2.9 million, 1.1) to Sunday nights at 7 p.m.. This could indicate Fox is planning to change its 8 p.m. hour on Friday nights, which is when "Brothers" also airs ... or is simply trying to burn the show off. Incidentally, "Brothers" performed better in the Sunday slot than it has on Fridays.
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/10/nfl-tops-dour-sunday.html
But so far this season, another show has taken the top spot: Fox's "Family Guy."
What's happened is that "Housewives" has eroded in the Nielsens, while "Family Guy" has been bolstered by its new spinoff lead-in -- "The Cleveland Show," which replaced the modestly performing "King of the Hill."
Until this season, "Family Guy" has never beaten "Housewives," according to Fox. Yet for the past couple weeks, "Family Guy" has edged out the ABC soap.
Last night might be no exception -- the numbers are very tight -- but the preliminary ratings suggest "Family Guy" may once again be the king of the night, despite slipping from last week.
NBC's "Sunday Night Football" led the otherwise sluggish and somewhat inconclusive evening. The Indianapolis vs. Tennessee game (13.8 million, 5.5 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) was tops on NBC.
CBS was in second place because of some NFL overrun that disrupted its other shows in these early numbers: "Amazing Race" (10.8 million, 3.1) and "Three Rivers" (7.7 million, 1.9) were seemingly on par, with "Cold Case" (7.2 million, 1.7) dipping.
ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (9.8 million, 3.0) and "Desperate Housewives" (13.1 million, 4.4) both fell 12%, and "Brothers & Sisters" (9 million, 2.9) dropped 9%.
Without an NFL lead-in this week, Fox's comedies took hits -- "Simpsons" (7.5 million, 3.6) down 18%, "Cleveland Show" (7.8 million, 3.8) down 14%, "Family Guy" (8.9 million, 4.5) down 12% and "American Dad" (6.7 million, 3.4) down 6%.
Also of interest, Fox quietly added original episodes of "Brothers" (2.9 million, 1.1) to Sunday nights at 7 p.m.. This could indicate Fox is planning to change its 8 p.m. hour on Friday nights, which is when "Brothers" also airs ... or is simply trying to burn the show off. Incidentally, "Brothers" performed better in the Sunday slot than it has on Fridays.
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/10/nfl-tops-dour-sunday.html