• by Wayne Friedman , November 30, 2009

NBC continues to make the most of its opportunities on Sunday night as the NFL season winds down.

The network grabbed another win, thanks to its dominant "Sunday Night Football" series, giving the network a Nielsen preliminary 5.4 rating/13 share among 18-49 viewers for the night. With the typically slow December now starting up, NBC should widen its lead on the night -- before its usual collapse once January rolls around.

Overall, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" earned another strong 6.6 rating/17 share for its efforts.

Fox also had a pretty good night due to its animated comedies, which gained after a week of low returns, such as the "American Music Awards" of a week ago. Fox came in second on Sunday overall with a 4.2/10.

Shows like "The Simpsons" were up 27% to a 4.2/10, and "The Cleveland Show" was 6% higher to a 3.5/8. Fox's strong "Family Guy" rose 13% higher to a 4.4 rating/10 share at 9 p.m. -- the network's usual high-rated show on Sunday.

Fox's "Family Guy" tied ABC's "Desperate Housewives" with the same 4.4/10 among 18-49 viewers. But for ABC, this was nothing to be happy about: It was the lowest numbers that "Housewives" earned for the season. ABC's 10 p.m. show "Brothers & Sisters" also drifted lower to a 3.0/8. This put ABC -- which is usually stronger -- at a 3.1/8, for third place overall on Sunday night.

Unlike Fox, CBS didn't get the big draft of a late afternoon/early prime-time spillover of an NFL game. Fox earned a 6.2/17 for the first half hour of prime time -- 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Instead, CBS started the night with a 2.6/7 from "60 Minutes" -- more or less the series seasonal average this year.

None of this impacted CBS for the rest of the night. "Amazing Race" at 8 p.m. reached a still-strong 3.4/8, down a bit from the week before, and a two-hour special "A Dog Named Christmas" earned a 2.1/6, which was actually higher than recent editions of series "Cold Case" and "Three Rivers."

CBS scored a 2.6/6 for the night. Univision followed at a 1.1/3.

Among the younger set, 18-34 viewers mostly turned to NBC and then Fox, with a 4.8/13 and a 4.4/12 respectively.