• by Wayne Friedman , August 17, 2009

CBS picked up a Sunday victory in August, thanks to a dramatic PGA Championship and an interview with NFL player Michael Vick.

Early evening spillover of the big golf event -- which witnessed a rare loss for an event-leading Tiger Woods -- posted a preliminary Nielsen Media Research 2.8 rating/ 10 share among 18-49 viewers in the 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. half-hour.

This provided a strong lead-in to a "60 Minutes" interview with Michael Vick, the NFL quarterback, who landed in prison for 18 months for running a dog-fighting ring. The show almost doubled its rating results from the week before with a 2.7 rating/9 share.

CBS repeated these results for its "Big Brother" reality show, which ran after "60 Minutes." This was enough to give CBS a win, averaging a 2.0 rating/6 share among 18-49 viewers.

But Fox was a close second to CBS, with a 1.9/6 from re-running its animated comedies. Three "Family Guy" repeats were its best performers -- earning a 2.4/7, 2.6/7, and a 2.3/6.

ABC earned better numbers for its Mark Burnett-produced reality competition business-themed show "Shark Tan," with a 1.8/5, up from a 1.3 rating a week ago. This was mostly because of the absence of strong Sunday night competition of NBC's NFL pre-season football game a week ago.

Among 18-49 viewers, ABC finished in third place with a 1.4/4, NBC earned a 0.9/3, and CW finished with a 0.3/1.