Nellie Andreeva

Once Upon A Time‘s impressive three-week streak of ratings increases came to a screeching halt last night as the ABC fairytale drama (2.7/7) dropped 23% from last Sunday to a series low. Football had a bigger effect on broadcast networks’ lineups last night as a Fox overrun bled deeper into primetime than usual, pushing the start of the net’s regular programming to 8:20 PM and providing an atypical competition for the others. Still, Once Upon A Time was steady from its first half-hour (2.7 in 18-49), which faced the football overrun, to the second (2.8), which didn’t, meaning that whatever regular viewers the series lost to football did not come back when the game was over. ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos (1.4/4), which took on the brunt of the football overrun from 7-8 PM, was down 18%.

ABC’s Revenge had already been on a ratings downswing even when its lead-in Once Upon A Time was climbing in the ratings over the past three weeks. Now with Once down, Revenge (2.4/5) dropped 11% to a season low. This is not good news for the sophomore soap, which has been a soft performer in its new high-profile Sunday 9 PM slot this fall. A little better news for newcomer 666 Park Ave (1.3/3), which may have finally found the bottom, even with last Sunday’s series low. As ABC is nearing back order decision on its freshman series, the question is whether a 1.3 demo rating would be enough to warrant an order for the supernatural drama, whose chances of continuing had diminished over the last few weeks.

Because of the 8:20 PM start of Fox’s animated comedy block, ratings for the network’s shows, including the 200th episode of Family Guy, are scrambled. To mark the occasion, the veteran animated comedy ran an hourlong edition. There are definitive numbers only for a half-hour in the middle of its telecast, which posted a 2.5/6, even with last week’s episode.

The ratings for CBS’ 60 Minutes (1.7/4) took another football-overrun-related ratings swing, down 50% from last week when the newsmagazine had a football lead-in. The Amazing Race (2.4/6) also was down from last week, by 8%, to a new season low. But The Good Wife (1.7/4) and The Mentalist (1.8/5) held steady.

NBC is projected to win another Sunday night with the Texans-Bears Sunday Night Football game, which drew a 13.7/21, down 6% from last week.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.