Sunday Night Football Ends The Season The Way It Began

Sunday Night Football once again wins the primetime ratings, beating all comers on the other networks. NBC finished with an 11.6 rating/18 share, but it was down from the previous week, 11.9/19. A lot of that could have done with the blowout of the Cincinnati Bengals at the hands of the Jets. However, the game fared better than last year’s finale, the Denver Broncos-San Diego Chargers.

“SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” TOPS ALL SUNDAY NIGHT PROGRAMMING FOR 15th TIME IN 16 WEEKS

Jets Shutout Victory Over Bengals to Earn Playoff Spot Powers NBC to Another Sunday Night Ratings Win

Tops Desperate Housewives on ABC by 47%


NEW YORK - Jan. 4, 2010 - Last night’s “NBC Sunday Night Football” was the No. 1 broadcast on Sunday night for the 14th time in 15 weeks with the New York Jets 37-0 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals to clinch a Wild Card playoff berth. “SNF” was again the No. 1 show of the night in the metered markets (excludes overruns of NFL day games) on a night that faced original programming on the other networks including Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters on ABC, 60 Minutes on CBS and Simpsons and Family Guy on Fox. Head-to-head “Sunday Night Football” out-rated Desperate Housewives by 47 percent (13.1 vs. 8.9 from 9-10 p.m. ET).

With the “Sunday Night Football” season complete, SNF was the top rated Sunday night primetime broadcast in 15 of 16 weeks. Last season, SNF won 13 of 16 Sunday nights after winning 11 of 16 in 2007 and nine of 16 in 2006.

Last night’s game drew an overnight rating of a 11.4 and an 18 share, a gain of eight percent over last year’s Broncos-Chargers Week 17 game (10.6/17).

The rating peaked from 9-9:30 p.m. ET at a 13.1/20.

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR SNF WEEK 17:
1. Cincinnati, 37.6/50
2. Dayton, 21.8/31
3. New York, 18.4/27
4. San Diego, 16.8/26
5. Columbus, 16.3/24
6. New Orleans, 16.1/22
7. Las Vegas, 15.1/22
8. Nashville, 15.0/21
T9. Albuquerque, 13.9/20
T9. Richmond, 13.9/20

**Viewership numbers will be available when national ratings are released tomorrow.**

We’ll get final numbers on last night’s game tomorrow, plus final numbers on the season later in the week.

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