• by Wayne Friedman , October 4, 2010

The second Sunday of the new season delivered one same old story, a strong NFL, but also a new wrinkle: Higher ratings for some established shows.

NBC's "Sunday Night Football" again clobbered the competition -- a Nielsen preliminary 6.8 rating/17 share among 18-49 viewers for the New York Giants 17-3 victory over the Chicago Bears. This is the best October prime-time NFL game in 10 years. And it pushed NBC to another Sunday night victory among 18-49 viewers, with a 5.7/15.

Even with this, two Sunday night veterans both witnessed their ratings rise in the second week from their respective first-week season debuts, which is somewhat rare. "Housewives" was at a 4.3/10, while "The Simpsons" enjoyed a 4.1/11.

Fox was a strong second overall for the night with a 4.3/11 -- but with some mixed results. While "Simpsons" was stronger, its usual big heavyweight show "Family Guy" at 9 p.m. headed south -- moving down to a 3.9/9 from a 4.3/10 a week ago, good for fourth place. At 9:30 p.m., the season debut of Fox's "American Dad" was down about 20% from its year-ago debut, to a 2.9/7.

Still, Fox benefited -- as it always does in the fall -- from the afternoon overrun of the NFL games. From 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., it tallied a big 7.6/23.

Another premiere of the night -- CBS' "CSI: Miami," in its new 10 p.m. time slot -- was down about 20% from its start of a year ago, ending the night at a 3.2/8. CBS also had some other mixed results. "The Amazing Race" was down to a 3.3/9; "Undercover Boss" was slightly up 5% to a 4.0/9.

Rounding out the rest of the 18-49 Sunday scoreboard, CBS was in second place with a 3.2/8; ABC earned a 2.9/8; and Univision scored a 1.0/3.