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It was a good night to be airing football.
ABC: PAN AM has moved swiftly from “potential hit” to “possible survivor,” but it’s not time to bring out the air sickness bags just yet. The real culprit of the night was DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, which was down a staggering 35% from last year’s season average. Pan Am only lost about 15% of the Housewives rating, a very acceptable drop (last year Brothers & Sisters doubled that decline), and it’s still beating CSI Miami in the timeslot. If Pan Am can hold where it is, ABC will call it a win. However, we won’t really know what ABC’s Sunday looks like until the end of October, when ONCE UPON A TIME replaces EXTREME MAKEOVER in the lineup.
CBS: Not only was the 7PM hour boosted by football runover, but 60 MINUTES also included Andy Rooney’s much-hyped final “few minutes,” so its number was a one-time event. THE GOOD WIFE‘s ratings seem to have stabilized, basically at the same level that it was performing last spring on Tuesdays. It’s way below what Undercover Boss and CSI MIAMI were doing last fall on Sundays–however, Undercover plummeted as the season went on, and CSI MIAMI followed suit, so the network is more or less where it was late last season.
FOX: THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY were about 10% below last year’s season averages, but that will even out over the course of the fall as the networks rotate the late football games.
NBC: Football = Victory. (Unless you’re a Jets fan.)
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