With all of its programs showing week-to-week gains, ABC stood as the top network in key demos on Sunday, led by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Basketball-boosted CBS, meanwhile, eeked out a victory in total viewers.
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (4.5 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, 12.8 million viewers overall) dominated the 8 o'clock hour, building nicely on its lead-in from a repeat "America's Funniest Home Videos" (2.4/7 in 18-49, 8.3 million viewers overall) and rising by about 12% week to week. The Alphabet net then remained on top with first-year unscripted entries "Oprah's Big Give" (3.9/9 in 18-49, 11.3 million viewers overall) and "Here Come the Newlyweds" (3.1/8 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall), with the latter looking solid one week from its finale.
CBS started the evening off strong with an NCAA basketball overrun, as the close of the nail-biter game between Kansas and Davidson should produce roughly a 6 demo rating and 18 million viewers overall for the first 23 minutes of primetime. The rest of the night's numbers for the Eye are sketchy as the net opted to start all of its programs late in most of the country. The first new episode of "Cold Case" in a while looks to have averaged roughly a 2.6 rating in 18-49 and a little more than 9 million viewers overall.
Fox was sturdy with an original "The Simpsons" at 8 o'clock (second-place 3.4/9 in 18-49, 7.1 million viewers overall), while "King of the Hill" delivered a 2.7/7 in 18-49 and 6.0 million viewers overall at 8:30. Auds returned at 9 o'clock for a repeat of "Family Guy" (3.6/8 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall) but many flipped elsewhere at 9:30 when "Unhitched" came on (2.1/5 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall).
NBC logged woeful numbers for its "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" (0.6/2 in 18-49, 3.4 million viewers overall) before picking up with "Dateline" (1.7/4 in 18-49, 6.7 million viewers overall) and repeats of "Law & Order" (1.5/4 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2.0/5 in 18-49, 6.9 million viewers overall).
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: ABC, 3.5/9; CBS, 3.0/8; Fox, 2.5/7; NBC, 1.4/4; Univision, 1.1/3; CW, 0.6/2.
In total viewers: CBS, 10.4 million; ABC, 10.0 million; NBC, 5.8 million; Fox, 5.3 million; Univision, 2.7 million; CW, 1.4 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com