The Sked: SUNDAY RATINGS October 16

A sub-par Sunday Night Football game turned in a 5.7 Adult 18-49 rating in the fast nationals last night on NBC.  The game will probably go up to a 6.0 or 6.1 in the official nationals, enough to win the night but far away from the 10 rating for competitive games.

FOX benefited from a 6.7 fast national rating in the 7-8 hour from the long late afternoon national NFL game.  (That should go up to well over a 7 in the official nationals Tuesday morning.)  But it didn't help the special original telecast of The X Factor from 8-10 pm (3.3 rating).  There was a chance baseball would have bumped The X Factor yet again last night, but Game 7 of the American League Championship Series was not necessary when the Texas Rangers knocked out the Detroit Tigers on Saturday in Game 6.  All this disruption to The X Factor will probably keep it from hitting a 4 rating again for several weeks.


CBS averaged a 2.2 rating for the night, down 0.3 from the last time it did not have a late Sunday afternoon football game (September 25).  The network averaged a 3.3 rating from 7-11 pm on Sundays when it did have the late game to both disrupt and prop up its Sunday lineup.

ABC has stablized at a 2.0 rating for the night (four-week track: 2.5...2.3...2.0...2.0).   Desperate Housewives turned in a 2.7 and Pan Am a 1.8 last night (both down 0.1 from last week, but both likely candidates for a 0.1 upgrade in the official nationals). 

Season to date (four full weeks into the season), CBS is #1 with a 2.9 and FOX a very close second with a 2.85 rating.  NBC and ABC are tied for third (both at a 2.4), while The CW is averaging a 0.75.