Nellie Andreeva

In the first ever showdown between NBC’s Sunday Night Football and Fox’s World Series coverage, the two networks are expected to split the honors, with NBC winning Sunday night in adults 18-49 and Fox, which also benefited from a football overrun, finishing No.1 in total viewers. In their direct face-off, SNF (11.8 overnight rating/18 share from 8:30-11:15 PM) outrated World Series’ Game 4 (10.4/16 from 8:30-11:30 PM). Fox released time-adjusted fast nationals for the game between the Giants and the Rangers, which drew a 4.3 rating in 18-49 and 15.5 million total viewers. That was down 45% from last year’s Game 4 featuring the New York Yankees and down 16%/flat in viewers vs. the 2008 Yankee-less Game 4, which didn’t have to face NFL football.

Squeezed between SNF on NBC and the World Series/football runover on Fox, ABC and CBS posted across-the-board declines with the exception of CBS’ CSI: Miami, which was up. All ABC series posted season lows: America’s Funniest Home Videos (1.4/4) was down 22% from last week, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition down 25%, Desperate Housewives (3.5/9) down 10% and Brothers & Sisters down 8%.

For CBS, the numbers were additionally skewed by the fact that the network had a football overrun last week, which pushed the start of primetime to 7:17 PM and provided a strong lead-in that added to unfavorable week-to-week comparisons. 60 Minutes (1.6/5) was most affected, down 53%. The Amazing Race (2.5/7) was down 26% for a season low, Undercover Boss (2.9/7, down 17% for a series low, while CSI: Miami (2.6/7), up 4% from last week when it bled into late night.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.