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October 24, 2011
 

The Sked: SUNDAY RATINGS October 23

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Written by: Mitch Metcalf
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>ABC premiered Once Upon a Time last night with great success, a 3.9 Adult 18-49 rating, building impressively off a 1.5 rating lead-in from America’s Funniest Home Videos.  Viewers liked what they saw in the pilot as audience built throughout the show: 8:00-8:30 (3.8 rating) and 8:30-9:00 (4.0).  The fairy tale-dual universe drama was also the highest rated entertainment show on the night, followed by Desperate Housewives (3.0) and Amazing Race (2.7).  We’ll see if the audience sticks with this series over the next few weeks, but give ABC credit for opening the show.

Sporting events were the other big shows on the night: a horrible NFL regular season game that still managed to beat Game 4 of the World Series.  NBC had really bad luck with the football game.  One hour into play at 9:30 pm ET, the win-less, Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts were being pounded by the New Orleans Saints 28-0.  At the same time, Texas was leading St Louis 1-0 in the 5th inning in a tight, well-played game. By 11:15 pm, both games ended with the Saints destroying the now 0-7 Colts 62-7 and Texas winning 4-0 over the Cardinals.  
Nonetheless, the Sunday Night Football game on NBC still beat World Series Game 4 (4.6 vs 4.0).  Such is the state of the national pastime.  Even in the 10 pm hour, when the NFL game was long since decided and the baseball game still in doubt, Sunday Night Football out-rated the World Series.  From 10:00-10:30: NFL (4.3) vs MLB (4.1).  10:30-11:00: NFL (3.9) vs MLB (3.8).  When the official nationals for Sunday are out Tuesday morning, the NFL game will probably go up to a 4.9 and Game 4 up to a 4.4 rating.  
  • World Series  Game1 Game2 Game3 Game4
  • 18-49 Rating   Wed   Thu   Sat   Sun
  • 2007 BOS-COL   5.8   5.3   4.3   7.1
  • 2008 PHI-TAM   4.8   4.0   3.2   5.1
  • 2009 NYY-PHI   6.3   5.8   4.7   7.8
  • 2010 SFG-TEX   4.7   4.0   2.9   4.3
  • 2011 TEX-STL   4.2   4.0   3.5*  4.4*  *est. official rating

With the Texas victory last night (creating a 2-2 series tie after four games), the chance of a Game 7 Thursday has zoomed to 69% (based on the 39 past World Series tied 2-2).  Only with a Game 7 will Major League Baseball — and FOX — see ratings worthy of major sports championship.


Updated season to date averages to come.



About the Author

Mitch Metcalf
MITCH METCALF has been tracking every US film release of over 500 screens (over 2300 movies and counting) since the storied weekend of May 20, 1994, when Maverick and Beverly Hills Cop 3 inspired countless aficionados to devote their lives to the art of cinema. Prior to that, he studied Politics and Economics at Princeton in order to prepare for his dream of working in television. He has been Head of West Coast Research at ABC, then moved to NBC in 2000 and became Head of Scheduling for 11 years.