Things still aren’t looking good for football on Sundays. The fast national ratings for Sunday Night Football are at a season low, down a million viewers (to 11.67 million) and 0.3 (to 4.0) in adults 18-49 vs. last week’s preliminary numbers. This represents another week to week decline that has been happening since the season started.
Where the previous game was depressed because it aired opposite the World Series, the blame for Sunday’s game likely falls on a lackluster matchup between two middling teams, the Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins. Many people speculate there are other reasons for the declines (the National Anthem protests being a big one) but it’s definitely not the Sunday behemoth it once was. These numbers are by no means dreadful but the steady decline is definitely a cause of concern.
The Simpsons (1.3, 2.94 million viewers), Ghosted (1.0, 2.46 million viewers) and The Last Man on Earth (0.8, 1.94 million viewers) all were even with their last episodes without an NFL lead-in on FOX. Family Guy slipped a couple tenths to 1.0 demo rating and 2.30 million viewers. Bob’s Burgers is inflated at a 1.6 demo score and 3.80 million viewers due to late-ending NFL games in some markets but will probably settle around its 1.2 average.
At CBS, Wisdom of the Crowd (1.1, 7.98 million viewers) rebounded to match its number from two weeks ago after lat week’s World Series-induced low. It looks like the Jeremy Piven allegations didn’t really hurt viewership for the show one way or another. NCIS: Los Angeles rose a tenth to a 0.9 demo rating and 7.79 million viewers, although that’s still a bit below its season average. Madam Secretary started a bit late and scored a 0.7 demo rating and 6.60 million viewers to end the night.
Can SNF avoid more weekly declines? Check back next Monday for the Sunday ratings recap!
