NBC's football scores Sunday

'Life Is Wild' debuts to weak numbers

By RICK KISSELL

The marquee National Football League matchup between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers carried NBC to victory on the first Sunday in October, a night that also included weak premiere numbers for CW family drama "Life Is Wild."

Based on affiliate-based prelim Nielsens for Sunday, the Bears' 27-20 victory over their rivals is projected to average a 7.7 rating/19 share in adults 18-49 and 18.4 million viewers overall, making it the top program of the night.

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" (6.6/16 in 18-49, 17.4 million viewers overall) was the top entertainment series of the evening despite a roughly 12% falloff from its season premiere of the previous week. Following the season opener of "America's Funniest Home Videos" at 7 (2.6/8 in 18-49, 8.5 million viewers overall), "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" ran a solid second at 8 o'clock (4.1/10 in 18-49, 11.7 million viewers overall), while the net's "Brothers & Sisters" at 10 o'clock (4.5/12 in 18-49, 12.2 million viewers overall) also was the demo runner-up to football in its slot.

At CBS, following an NFL overrun and postgame show, a 90-minute edition of "60 Minutes" averaged a 2.1/6 in 18-49 and 10.8 million viewers overall), leading into "Cold Case" (2.9/7 in 18-49, 12.8 million viewers overall) and "Shark" (2.5/6 in 18-49, 11.2 million viewers overall).

Fox was also down week to week and led as usual by "Family Guy" (4.0/9 in 18-49, 8.4 million viewers overall) and "The Simpsons" (3.6/10 in 18-49, 7.7 million viewers overall).

CW opened new drama "Life Is Wild" to a mere 0.4/1 in 18-49 and 1.6 million viewers overall, on par in demos with, and roughly double the overall audience of, its woeful "Online Nation" lead-in (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC (7:30-11 p.m.) 6.0/16; ABC, 4.4/12; Fox, 2.9/8; CBS, 2.6/7; Univision, 0.8/2; CW, 0.4/1.

In total viewers: NBC (7:30-11 p.m.), 14.7 million; ABC, 12.4 million; CBS, 11.5 million; Fox, 6.3 million; Univision, 1.9 million; CW, 1.3 million.