• by Wayne Friedman , September 30, 2013

Strong cable programming -- especially AMC’s series finale of “Breaking Bad” -- shuffled the viewer mix for the first Sunday of the new TV season. AMC Networks' series finale posted the best-ever results for its concluding show of “Breaking Bad” with 10.3 million viewers -- three times the number it scored a year ago. The week before, it earned 6.6 million viewers and a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” posted a Nielsen preliminary 6.7 rating/15 share among 18-49 viewers and 18.5 million viewers overall -- continuing its streak as the best-rated prime-time TV show. The game was down from a 6.9 rating a week ago among preliminary results with 18.7 million viewers.

Fox’s late-afternoon coverage of its NFL coverage from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. scored a 6.3/20 and 17.6 million overall viewers. NBC’s pre-game “Football Night in America,” at 8 p.m., was next with a 5.3/15 and 15 million overall viewers.

Fox’s post-game show “The O.T.” earned a strong 4.0/12 and 10.5 million viewers. This led into Fox’s young male-skewing animated comedies, which were all down anywhere from 15% to 25% from their respective premieres of last year: “The Simpsons” at a 2.8/8 (6.3 million overall viewers); “Bob’s Burgers” at 2.1/5 (4.4 million viewers); “Family Guy” at 2.6/6 (5.3  million); and “American Dad” with 2.1/5 (4.3 million).

ABC witnessed lower results versus a year ago from a “Once Upon A Time” clip show, 2.6/7; and “Revenge," at 2.4/6. New show “Betrayal” got to a modest 1.5/4.

CBS season premieres of its prime-time programming were shifted ahead by 15 minutes because of its late-afternoon NFL coverage. During the 8 p.m. hour, a combination of “60 Minutes” and “Amazing Race” got to a 2.0/7. In the next hour, “Race” and “The Good Wife” posted a 1.5/3. At 10 p.m., “Wife” and “The Mentalist” averaged a 1.6/4.

Showtime’s “Homeland” started up another year with 1.9 million viewers, and new series “Masters of Sex” posted 1 million viewers.

For the night, NBC for its key 18-49 viewers scored a 5.6/15, followed by Fox at a 3.3/9, ABC with a 2.0/5, CBS at a 1.6/4, and Univision with a 1.1/3. NBC averaged 15.4 million overall viewers, followed by CBS at 9.5 million, Fox with 8.0 million, ABC at 6.7 million, and Univision with 2.9 million.

advertisement

advertisement