ABC carries week with NFL kickoff

By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Football and the return of America's favorite animated clan carried Fox and ABC to victory during the week ending September 11.

ABC topped perennial leader CBS in the total viewers column for the week with an average of 8.3 million viewers, fueled by its live coverage of Thursday's NFL season kickoff game between the Oakland Raiders and this year's Super Bowl victors, the New England Patriots. ABC and Fox tied for the weekly bragging rights in the adults 18-49 demographic with an average of a 3.1 rating/9 share.

The game, which ended in a 30-20 win by the Patriots, was by far the most-watched program of the week (18 million) and highest-rated in the key demo (7.7/23), according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC also saw renewed signs of life, after weeks of sluggish summer ratings, Monday with its coverage of one of college football's fiercest rivalries, University of Miami vs. Florida State (9.7 million, 3.5/10) and Saturday with the University of Texas' face-off against Ohio State (9.9 million, 3.4/11).

Fox was buoyed by the 17th-season opener of "The Simpsons" (11.1 million, 5.2/14) on Sunday, which helped the network get its new 8:30 p.m. Sunday comedy "The War at Home" (8.7 million, 4.2/11) off to a decent start. The 9 p.m. season opener of "Family Guy" (9.1 million, 4.5/10) also did solid business for the network on Sunday; "American Dad" (7.8 million, 3.8/9) was less impressive at 9:30 p.m. in its sophomore-season premiere.

The best news of the week for Fox came on Monday, when the second outing of its highly touted new drama "Prison Break" (8.5 million, 3.9/9) held up well despite airing on the Labor Day holiday when overall primetime viewing levels traditionally take a dive. ("Break" reeled in even stronger numbers in its third airing this past Monday.)

For the week, CBS was No. 2 to ABC in total viewers (7.5 million), followed by Fox (7.3 million), NBC (6.3 million), UPN and WB (tied at 2.2 million). In the key demo, CBS was No. 2 to Fox and ABC with a 2.6/7 average, followed by NBC (2.0/6). The new TV season can't start soon enough for UPN and WB, which were once again laden with reruns and delivered unimpressive numbers in their target demos of adults 18-34 (UPN's 0.9/3 to WB's 0.8/3).

"Dateline NBC" continued to be a workhorse for the peacock last week as it offered continuing coverage of the devastation in the Gulf Coast states. Of the five hours of "Dateline" on NBC's schedule last week, the 8 p.m. Monday installment was the most watched (8.2 million, 2.6/7).

CBS' highlight of the week, as always, was its 9 p.m. Thursday repeat of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (12.9 million, 4.3/11).

On Friday, the six broadcast networks and more than two dozen other outlets carried the telethon special "Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast" commercial-free from 8-9 p.m. Because it aired commercial free, ratings for the special will not be incorporated into the individual networks' summer or yearlong averages. According to Nielsen, "Shelter" drew an average audience of nearly 24 million viewers across 29 English- and Spanish-language outlets.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter