NFC Playoff Dominates Ratings

Fox's Sunday night NFC Championship game between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers dominated all broadcast networks combined. It scored the playoff game's highest ratings in over a decade.

With two of the most storied football franchises, the game posted a monstrous Nielsen preliminary 18.6 rating/40 share among 18-49 viewers. The game (and subsequent post-game programming) dominated prime time by so much it tripled the collective rating/share (6.2/13) of the other networks combined.

Fox also benefited because the game was close throughout, with the Giants winning 23-20 in overtime.

Perhaps the most glaring news wasn't the main competitors--ABC, NBC, or CBS. It was CW, which registered a 0.2 rating and a 0 share. Technically, a zero share signifies no viewers. But it's a statistical aberration--CW had a fraction of a share point.

More specifically, CW averaged 688,000 viewers, with its best coming from an original "Life is Wild"--averaging 799,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating/1 share among 18-49 viewers.

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Among the brave competitors, ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" scored a decent 3.8/7 among 18-49 viewers. CBS had a solid 3.1/7 in 18-49 viewers for the season finale of "The Amazing Race." All other network shows scored under a 2 rating.

Overall, 18-49 viewer numbers had Fox averaging an 18.6 rating/40 share for the night; ABC, 2.8/6; CBS; 2.0/4; NBC, 1.2/3, and CW, 0.2/0.

In terms of total viewers, Fox had 48.58 million; ABC, 7.94 million; CBS, 7.88 million; NBC, 4.51 million; and CW, 688,000.

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