It may only be summer re-run and NFL pre-season, but NBC's new Sunday night football package looks like a contender for the regular season.
Its "Sunday Night Football" broadcast
Aug. 6, which featured a pre-season Hall of Fame game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders, pulled in 9.97 million viewers. That's up 14 percent from the 8.73 million who tuned in for
the comparable pre-season "Monday Night Football" game on ABC last year.
Better news in the always-key adult 18-49 demo--"SNF" averaged a 3.6 rating among adults 18-49--9 percent higher than
last year's 3.3 for the "MNF" pre-season opener.
All this easily carried NBC to the top spot for the night among 18-49 viewers, with 3.4 rating/10 share. Next was CBS at 2.2/7; then ABC
and Fox each at 2.0/6. Univision had 1.1/3, and the WB 0.4/1.
However, analysts caution that this is just pre-season; "SNF" is only running against summer reruns. This fall, it will face ABC's
strong lineup, including "Desperate Housewives;" and a revamped CBS drama lineup that boasts "Without a Trace," a strong Thursday night show.
NBC hopes that "SNL" will give male broadcast
viewers an alternative to the mostly female-skewing broadcast programming in prime time. Detractors say Sunday night football could be overkill, coming out of the broadcast network's heavy
daytime/early evening football coverage on CBS and Fox.
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