ABC tops soft Sunday

'Housewives,' 'Brothers & Sisters' carry night

By RICK KISSELL

Claiming the top three programs of the night, ABC cruised to victory on Sunday night while its rivals posted some weak numbers. Things figure to pick up next week as more original episodes check back in for the first Sunday of the May sweep.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, ABC swept each hour of the night beginning with a repeat of "America's Funniest Home Videos" (2.2/7 in 18-49, 7.1 million viewers overall) and continuing with the season finale of "Oprah's Big Give" (3.2/9 in 18-49, 10.0 million viewers overall), which was up a little more than 10% week to week.

Night's top two scores came from "Desperate Housewives" (projected 5.6/13 in 18-49, 15.8 million viewers overall from 9 to 10:02 p.m.) and "Brothers & Sisters" (3.5/10 in 18-49, 10.3 million viewers overall from 10:02 to 11 p.m.), with the latter returning with a new episode for the first time since February.

Fox ran second on the night in demos with its all-repeat lineup of laffers, led by "Family Guy" (2.7/7 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall), "The Simpsons" (2.5/7 in 18-49, 5.3 million viewers overall) and "American Dad" (2.4/6 in 18-49, 4.9 million viewers overall).

At CBS, following a low-rated "60 Minutes" (1.5/5 in 18-49, 10.6 million viewers overall), "Big Brother" (2.3/6 in 18-49, 6.8 million viewers overall) ran second in various categories at 8 o'clock. Net then stumbled from 9 to 11 p.m. with Hallmark Hall of Fame pic "Sweet Nothing In My Ear" (1.5/4 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall).

NBC continues to struggle on the night, led by a repeat of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" at 10 (1.6/4 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: ABC, 3.6/10; Fox, 2.0/6; CBS, 1.7/5; NBC, 1.3/4; Univision, 0.9/2; CW, 0.5/1.

In total viewers: ABC, 10.8 million; CBS, 8.4 million; NBC, 5.2 million; Fox, 4.3 million; Univision, 2.1 million; CW, 1.3 million.