• by Wayne Friedman , August 14, 2007

This season NBC's "Sunday Night Football" program is half back--drawing about half the audience it did versus a year ago.

Although only a pre-season game, the contest between the Seattle Seahawks and San Diego Chargers on Sunday night drew a Nielsen preliminary 1.6 rating among 18-49 viewers. This was against a 3.1 rating for a pre-season game of the same week a year ago. Last year's premiere pre-season game (which ran a week earlier) earned a 3.6.

Much of this year's rating could be attributed to lower enthusiasm, due to viewers who now know what football on Sunday on NBC looks like.

Analysts say it is still only pre-season games. None of these contests mean anything until real game rivalries start next month. NBC again has a valuable card to play this year--picking the better late-season games for potentially higher ratings.

NBC this past Sunday night could only muster a third-place finish, tied with ABC with a Nielsen preliminary 1.6 rating/5 share.

CBS was first for the night among viewers 18-49 with a 2.2 average rating. Its "Big Brother" at 8 p.m. had a 2.8 number. At 7 p.m., CBS had a 2.1 for "60 Minutes," and at 9 p.m., it pulled in a 2.0 rating for "Cold Case."

Fox came in second with a 2.0/6. Fox's 9 p.m. repeats of "Family Guy" headlined with a 2.9 rating for the network. Repeats of "The Simpsons" and "American Dad" starting at 8 p.m. gave Fox a 2.2 rating for the night.

Univision was fifth at 0.8/2 and CW sixth, at 0.4/1, for the night.