Nellie Andreeva

I’m thinking of dropping “race” from the headline of the Sunday ratings story until the end of the NFL season because there is not much of a race on the night that is dominated by football. NBC’s Sunday Night Football was the top-rated show on Sunday night for 13th straight week. The game between the Steelers and the Ravens for the leadership position in the AFC North posted a 14.6 overnight rating/23 share. That is the highest average ever for a Week 13 game, up 7% from last year’s Vikings-Cardinals face-off. NBC is once again projected to win the night in 18-49 and total viewers.

Fox was fueled by a huge Fox overrun for a second consecutive week. It led into The Simpsons (4.2/11, 9.6 million), which was up a tenth from last week to tie its season high in 18-49 and post a new season high in total viewers. There was no halo effect over the rest of the Fox lineup, which last week posted double-digit gains. The Cleveland Show (3.2/8) at 8:30 PM was down 6%. Another Cleveland Show (2.8/7) subbed for Family Guy at 9 PM, followed by American Dad (2.5/6), which was down 14% from last week when it followed a Family Guy rerun.

CBS’ and ABC’s lineups returned to normal after featuring a movie/repeats for the last 1-2 weeks, with most series trending down. ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2.2/6 was flat with its last original on Nov. 14, Desperate Housewives (3.5/8) was down 8% to tie its season low, while Brothers & Sisters (2.2/6) was down 12% for a season low and tied with its series low.

CBS’ The Amazing Race (3.0/7), was down 6% from last week. Undercover Boss (2.7/6) was down a steep 21% from its last original 2 weeks ago to tie its series low. CSI: Miami (2.5/6) was up 9% from Nov. 21.

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