ABC scores demo win
Football, Walters deliver; Eye tops viewers
According to Nielsen, an attractive "Monday Night Football" match-up (Green Bay-Miami) combined with a "20/20" spec featuring a Barbara Walters chat with singer Justin Timberlake to give ABC its first Monday victory of the season in adults 18-49 (a season-high 6.5/16). Net beat out CBS (5.9/14), which had won the season's first six Mondays. Eye stayed on top in some femme demos and total viewers.
NBC's "Carrie" (12.21 million, 5.0/12 in A18-49), a new three-hour version of the Stephen King classic, delivered the best 18-49 score for a single-part made-for (excluding CBS' "9/11") since ABC's "Brian's Song" in December. It fared best among women 18-34 (first-place, 6.3/16).
The 5.0 rating in 18-49 gave NBC its best Monday of the season, even if it did finish third. Net was up 43% vs. the same night a year ago.
Strong showing helped NBC maintain a comfortable advantage through five nights of the November sweep for the key adults 18-49 crown.
Peacock leads with a 4.9 rating (up 2% vs. last year), followed by CBS (4.2, down 12%; net aired the Emmys last year), Fox (3.8, down 48% courtesy of three World Series games last November) and ABC (3.7, down 3%).
CBS is on top in total viewers with an average of 13.3 million.
The Eye net drew Monday's largest overall aud even though "CSI: Miami" matched its low in 18-49 (6.3/15), and "Everybody Loves Raymond" (7.3/16) and "Still Standing" (5.5/12) also hit firstrun season valleys -- likely due to a stronger NBC and ABC. Still, "CSI: Miami" was up a whopping 58% vs. last year's "Family Law" (4.0/10).
"Raymond" was the night's most-watched show (20.41m), and net's "King of Queens" and "Yes, Dear" led their slots in adults 18-49 and 25-54.
"Monday Night Football" grabbed its largest aud of the season (19.43m) and "20/20" (8.05m, 3.1/8) gave ABC a boost at 8.
Fox was a distant fourth with a season low for "Boston Public" (8.93m, 3.9/10 in 18-49) and a repeat "24."
"7th Heaven" and "Everwood" combined to give the WB its best-ever Monday in men 18-34 (2.6/7) and match its high in adults 18-34 (3.3/9). "Heaven" led at 8 in femmes 12-34 (4.9/13) while "Everwood" matched its season high in women 18-34 (3.6/9) and was up 15% or more in key demos vs. "Angel" a year ago.
UPN's comedies were down slightly year to year.
