Nellie Andreeva

The veteran and the rookie led the entertainment pack last night as Fox’s The Simpsons, the longest-running primetime scripted series on air, tied newcomer Once Upon A Time as the highest-rated non-sports program with a 3.7/9 in adults 18-49. For ABC’s Once Upon A Time, this is a modest 5% dip from last week; The Simpsons too was down slightly from last week’s Treehouse of Horror (8%). But The Simpsons had a 10 times bigger lead-in from the NFL game overrun vs. a Once Upon A Time repeat (1.1/3) for the ABC fairytale series, which also hit a series high in adults 18-34. Once Upon A Time‘s lead-out, veteran dramedy Desperate Housewives (2.8/6), was down 10% from last week, while freshman drama Pan Am continues to be stuck at a 1.8/4. The order was reversed at Fox, where the rookie was following the veteran. In its second week behind The Simpsons, new animated comedy Allen Gregory (2.1/5) was down 13% from its soft premiere to rank as the lowest-rated Fox series last night. Family Guy (3.0/7) was down 6%, followed by American Dad (2.5/6), down 7% from its last original seven weeks ago.

NBC once again dominated Sunday’s primetime with Sunday Night Football‘s close Ravens-Steelers game, which drew a 14.2 overnight rating/23 share, down 3% from last week but up 15% from last year’s Week 9 game.

CBS’ Sunday ratings are once again scrambled by football coverage as the network’s regular lineup was delayed until about 7:30 PM in about 13% of the country due to local NFL overrun. With that caveat, here are CBS’ fast nationals for last night: 60 Minutes (2.2/6) comparisons to last week are irrelevant as the newsmagazine was inflated by a huge NFL overrun. The Amazing Race (2.6/6) was down 13% from last week’s 8:30 PM telecast, which also benefited by the football overrun. The Good Wife (2.1/5) was up 5%, and CSI: Miami (1.9/5) was down 14%.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.