Broadcast Nets Get Holiday Blues Sunday, NBC Leads With 'SNF'

TV broadcast networks offered up mostly lower-rated programming for Sunday, the last day of the long holiday weekend, with four of the five major networks losing ground versus the previous week.

NBC still leads the way, but lost 37% in Nielsen preliminary 18-49 viewers to a 4.4 rating/11 share. Total viewers sank as well, down about the same level -- 36%, to 12.6 million viewers. Most of this came from a significantly lower-rated “Sunday Night Football” contest -- at a 5.4/13 versus the previous week’s 8.8/20.

Much of this came from its NFL football afternoon programming overrun, which grabbed a 7.8/21 in the 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. hour.

One major eye-opener was CBS’ improvement for its “60 Minutes” show at 8 p.m., at a strong 3.4/8 among 18-49 viewers. “60 Minutes” was also helped by its big Amazon scoop, where the online retailer reveals its futurist plans to deliver product packages to homes in 30 minutes -- from drones.

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Overall, CBS more than doubled its number to a 3.7/9 among 18-49 viewers from a 1.5/4, comparing this past Sunday to a week ago.

Fox and ABC sank further than NBC, each losing more than half their key viewers week-to-week: Fox to a 1.5/4 from a 3.7/9; ABC down to a 1.3/3 from a 3.7/9. Among total viewers, ABC was at 6.6 million total average viewers versus 11.4 million the week before. Fox was at 3.4 million against 9.8 million the previous week.

This week, Fox went with repeats of its comedy lineup. ABC offered up originals for “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (1.2/3) and “Once Upon a Time” (1.9/5) in the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. time period, the latter matching its series' low rating. After that, ABC offered up a two-hour special, “Christmas in Conway," earning a weak 1.1/3.

Univision sank to 2.4 million total average viewers and a 0.8/2 among 18-49 viewers, versus 3.5 million viewers and a 1.2/3 number for 18-49 viewers.

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