• by Wayne Friedman , January 16, 2012

Big-time event network programming was in force Sunday with the NFL playoff on Fox easily besting NBC's "Golden Globes."

Heavy spillover from Fox's Giants-Packers NFC Divisional playoff in the afternoon -- heavily viewed by men and young men -- pushed the network's comedy block, which typically takes in plenty of male viewers, to major ratings.

Longtime comedy "The Simpsons" more than doubled its usual mid-2 rating levels to a preliminary 6.8 rating/16 share among 18-49 viewers. All this was boosted by a 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. hour, where the NFL game and post-game coverage registered a mega 14.3 rating/35 share among 18-49 viewers and more than 40 million viewers overall.

Fox used this expected NFL push to launch a new animated comedy, "Napoleon Dynamite," at 8:30 p.m. -- right behind "The Simpsons." And it delivered well with a healthy 4.6 rating/11 share. "Family Guy" at 9 p.m. rose to a 4.4/10 from a 3.1/7 from its last original outing. Another "Dynamite" airing at 9:30 p.m. took in a lower -- but still-healthy -- number with a 3.6/8.

For the night, Fox's preliminary 8.0/19 almost doubled NBC's 3.6/9, which came in at second place.

As entertainment awards season begins to pick up the pace, NBC's "Golden Globes" took in a preliminary 5.0 rating/11 share among 18-49 viewers and around 16.8 million overall viewers. This is down a bit from a year ago -- at 5.2/11 and 17 million viewers.

ABC and CBS vied for a distant third-place finish: ABC with a 2.1/5 and CBS at a 2.0/5.

The best performers here include ABC's still-surprising fantasy/drama "Once Upon a Time" at 8 p.m., which clocked in with a solid 3.3/8, down around 10% from the last time around, but a decent result, considering the competition.

CBS' best came from "Undercover Boss" starting off a new season, which also stood strong at 3.0/7. A year ago, also against the "Globes," "Boss" started off its new season with a 3.4 rating. A week ago, CBS soared on the night from the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, which averaged a preliminary 7.1/17.

Univision earned a preliminary 1.0/2 in 18-49 for the night, and an early 1.1/3 result a week ago.

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