The Sked: Sunday September 30 Ratings

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

NBC’s red-hot Sunday Night Football continues to run ahead of last year’s pace and ahead of our forecast issued last spring.  However, the other networks are performing almost exactly as forecast on a night when FOX had the late afternoon national NFL game.  (Remember, next week the CBS and FOX numbers will flip because CBS has the late game — CBS should average around a 3.3 from 7-11 pm, while FOX will go down to a 2.3 from 7-10 pm.)

ABC premiered solidly from 8-10 pm, before tailing off at 10 pm.  The 7 pm hour last night scored a 1.8 rating for a Once Upon a Time recap show (somewhat better than what America’s Funniest Home Videos will do when it returns next week).  The season premiere of Once Upon a Time did not quite match the 4.0 series debut on October 23 last year and is a touch below our fall forecast for the run of original episodes (which might now be closer to 3.7).  But given all the other 15-25% declines on other returning hit shows earlier in the week, Once Upon a Time seems like it is in decent shape.  Revenge opened decently as well on its new night, matching the Desperate Housewives rating on the same night last fall and on a track to hit our 3.0 rating for the entire fall run.  666 Park Avenue is no hit, however — down a full rating point from Revenge and well below the promising debut of Pan Am (although remember how that crashed in a few short weeks).  Going forward, 666 probably settles around a 1.8, with a full fall average around a 1.9 (significantly below our forecast).

The good times keep rolling for the NFL and NBC’s Sunday night.  Last night’s New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles contest went down to the wire, and we are projecting the 8.1 fast national rating for the game will rise to an 8.9 in the official nationals tomorrow (although a 9.2 or higher is very possible).

FOX ‘s animated block premiered after a long 4 pm NFL game (just like last year on the same night).  The Simpsons came closest to matching last year’s premiere, while Family Guy missed badly.  The satellite shows Bob’s Burgers and American Dad are about half a rating point behind last year’s pace.

CBS Sunday always takes it on the chin when they don’t have the NFL doubleheader.  The whole night basically sucked.  Viewers weren’t really interested in hearing from Arnold Schwarzenegger on 60 Minutes, and the 8-11 pm line up was similarly off last year’s pace.