• by Wayne Friedman , October 9, 2007

Viewers' TV life was wild for the top-notch NBC NFL game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. But for the CW's new show "Life Is Wild," life was too tame.

A thrilling come-from-behind victory by the Bears had NBC tackling the competition with strong Nielsen preliminary live-plus-same-day DVR playback numbers--a 7.7 rating/19 share among adult 18-49 viewers for the game. NBC posted a strong 6.0/16, easily winning Sunday night.

CW's new family drama set in Africa, "Life Is Wild," had less nail-biting results, and could only rise to a 0.4/1 in adults 18-49. It couldn't even keep pace with an "America's Next Top Model" rerun, at a 0.5/1.

Competing with NBC, ABC had its usual strong results. Its "Desperate Housewives" came in with a predictable 6.6/16, which was 12% off its season debut of a week ago. Other strong ABC performers--"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (a 4.1/10) and "Brothers & Sisters" (a 4.5/12) at 10 p.m.--helped the network to a solid second place for the evening, at 4.4/12.

Fox was a distant third. Its comedies, as usual, scored its best numbers--"Family Guy" earned a 4.0/9 in the meat of its Sunday lineup, 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., with "The Simpsons" reaching a 3.6/10 at 8 p.m. CBS was right after Fox, getting its best from "Cold Case" (a 2.9/7) and "Shark" (a 2.5/6). This brought CBS in with a 2.6/7 for the night. CW's "Wild" debut aside, the network's two new magazine shows didn't provide much punch for the night either: "CW Now" took a 0.4/1 and "Online Nation," a 0.3/1. It finished off the night with a 0.4/1.