CBS 'Touched' by homes win
Slumping Peacock headed for third- or fourth-place finish
Those figures, to be updated today, suggest slumping NBC will finish deep in third and close to fourth in both households and adults 18-49 for the Dec. 28-Jan. 3 week.
NBC's biggest night is usually Thursday, which was impacted by low viewership due to New Year's Eve.
Based on prelim results for Friday-through-Sunday (with considerable adjustment expected from Nielsen), NBC placed third ahead of Fox in households and CBS in adults 18-49, but by small enough margins that an NBC fourth-place finish by either measure is possible.
A Fox win is much more likely when looking at the head-to-head competition between it and NBC in the 15 hours they have in common. A different calculation would need to be viewed when considering Fox's 15 hours vs. NBC's 22.
ABC and Fox are fighting it out for the weeklong victory in adults 18-49, with football numbers (particularly unreliable in the prelim Nielsens) to determine who'll win the week by that measure.
Fox got a monster Sunday out of a 49ers-Packers football overrun and ''The X-Files,'' giving the News Corp. net a shot at intercepting the weeklong 18-49 win after ABC had looked like a certain winner one night earlier.
'Angel' ascends
CBS has left no doubt in the households race, with Sunday's ''Touched by an Angel'' ascending to a prelim 16.4 rating, 24 share in homes and a 7.0/15 in adults 18-49. If that household figure stands, it'll be the highest-flying ''Angel'' since Nov. 23, 1997. For the first time in its history, ''Angel'' is expected to earn the week's highest home rating.
Those angelic numbers, combined with a 14.4/21 in homes for ''60 Minutes'' and a 13.9/21 for the film ''Sabrina,'' have given CBS a prelim 3 share win over Fox in homes for Sunday and a 1 or 2 share win over ABC for the week, depending on rounding and Nielsen adjustments.
Fox was a close second Sunday in homes and a dominant first in adults 18-49 thanks to San Francisco-Green Bay football, which earned a 24.2 rating in Nielsen's metered markets (up 28% over the 18.9/37 of the comparable Detroit-Tampa Bay telecast last year).
Prelim nationals are unreliable for live telecasts, but Fox's primetime football overrun will clearly beat the combined 18-49 competition nationally and may do the same in households.
Fox also dominated at 9 p.m. with ''The X-Files'' (10.6/15 in homes, 10.8/22 in adults 18-49), which won its hour by an unearthly 10 shares in adults 18-49.
Viewers didn't warm to NBC's broadcast debut of ''Heat'' (9.5/14 in homes, 5.5/12 in adults 18-49), which finished fourth for its three-hour slot in adults 18-49.
NFL does well
It was a good weekend for the NFL, with three of four games scoring dramatic increases vs. last year in metered-market averages. On Saturday, Buffalo-Miami (17.9/37) improved by 16% vs. last year and Arizona-Dallas (20.9/38) rose by 24%. Sunday's New England-Jacksonville telecast (18.5/36) was down, but by just 0.5%.
The holiday weekend's college bowls dipped in the other direction, with six of seven network telecasts getting thrown for year-to-year losses. The one gainer was NBC's Jan. 1 Georgia Tech-Notre Dame Gator Bowl (6.3/13, up 66%).
Other Dec. 31-Jan. 2 results were ABC's Friday Wisconsin-UCLA Rose Bowl, 13.6/24 (down 28%); ABC's Friday Ohio State-Texas A&M Sugar Bowl, 11.2/19 (down 6%); ABC's Saturday Florida-Syracuse Orange Bowl, 10.0/17 (down 17%); ABC's Friday Michigan-Arkansas Citrus Bowl, 7.0/14 (down 28%); Fox's Friday Texas-Mississippi State Cotton Bowl, 4.4/9 (down 37%); and CBS' Thursday Texas Christian-USC Sun Bowl, 3.9/10 (down 5%).
Viewer interest in these games was apparently reduced because none of them was expected to have an impact on determining college football's apparent national championship between Tennessee-Florida State Fiesta Bowl, telecast Monday by ABC.
