• by Wayne Friedman , December 8, 2008

The end-of-the-season NFL football games are starting to score for some broadcast networks. Two high-profile teams--the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys--took Fox on a big ride early Sunday evening with an eye-popping Nielsen preliminary 9.0 rating/24 share among 18-49 viewers.

Although Fox had mediocre numbers the rest of the night--save perhaps from a "BCS Selection Show" which took in a 3.9/10--Fox easily won the night with a 4.6/11.

But NBC didn't get the same results from its "Sunday Night Football" package later that evening. A lower-profile Washington Redskins-Baltimore Ravens game--one that the network was allowed to grab from its flexible scheduling agreement with the NFL--only took in a 4.5/11, well below its 5.8/12 numbers of a week ago and under its 5.0-plus average for the season.

NBC landed with a 3.6/9--in third place, just behind ABC, which came in second with a 3.7/9.

ABC, the network, which won the just completed November sweeps among 18-49 viewers, continue to grab the best numbers for scripted shows. "Desperate Housewives" earned a 5.9/13--an improvement over its 5.6/12 of a week ago. Early in the evening, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" also got a bump, climbing to a 3.6/8 from a 3.3/8 of a week ago. The show did not seem to benefit from a related show lead-in: "Ty Pennington: Behind the Scenes," which earned a 1.7/5.

ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" showed big improvement week-to-week, reaching a 3.9/10 from a 2.9/7 the week before. The show gained even with CBS improving in the time period, thanks to a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "Front of the Class," which took in a 3.1/8. For CBS, this was an improvement from "Cold Case/The Unit" numbers of a week ago, which were at a 2.9/7.

CBS ended up first in viewers with 11.99 million, but fourth in the key advertiser 18-49 viewer group, at a 2.8/7.

Now in the initial weeks of its new Sunday lineup, with "Jericho" reruns and movies, the CW inched up again. The network is now at 1.45 million overall viewers, up from 1.26 million the week before. Its 18-49 data also improved, a bit--to a 0.5/1 from a 0.4/1.