• by Wayne Friedman , November 6, 2007

CBS showed off exactly why it could easily get $700,000 and more for a 30-second commercial for its top-drawer Indianapolis Colts-New England Patriots game.

The TV event got a massive Nielsen preliminary live-plus-same-day 13.5 rating/33 share among 18-49 viewers. If the numbers keep up, it'll easily become the highest-rated TV show of the season, so far.

The game pulled in "American Idol"-like numbers, with 35 million viewers--some 6 million more than the Dallas Cowboys-New England Patriots game of a few weeks ago. It was the highest score for an afternoon regular-season NFL game in at least 20 years.

But while CBS did well on the early part of the evening because of the afternoon football spillover into prime time, it only scored a 4.8 rating/12 share for the night overall.

Its highlight of the night was the debut of "Amazing Race," in its eighth edition, putting up a strong 4.2 rating/9 share. CBS drifted down from there with "Cold Case" earning a 2.7 rating, and "Shark" grabbing a 2.3 rating.

Powered by its own NFL game, NBC's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles on "Sunday Night Football" grabbed a strong 6.4 rating among 18-49 viewers at 9 p.m. For the night, NBC scored a 5.0 rating/12 share, leading all networks.

ABC was right behind CBS, in third place with a 4.7/12. It had the top-rated show of the night--"Desperate Housewives"--grabbing a 6.9, down from its previous outings. "Brothers & Sisters" at 10 p.m. had a decent 4.5/13.

Fox was next on the night with a 4.4/10. Its highlights were in the 9 p.m. hour--"The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror" took a 5.7 and "Family Guy" was nearly as strong,, with a 5.3.

On this first Sunday of the November sweeps period, Univision and CW trailed the top four networks--Univision with a 1.0/2 and CW at less than half of that, with a 0.4/1.