Fast National ratings for Thursday, September 4, 2014.
The Thursday night premiere of NBC's Sunday Night Football — program listings are silly — pitting the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks against the perennially contending Green Bay Packers helped NBC dominate primetime in all measures.
While the Thursday kickoff was down a bit from last year's Ravens-Broncos opener, NBC is still calling this the third highest rated Thursday NFL Kickoff game ever in metered markets. And, of course, it goes without saying that these are preliminary ratings and will likely understate the numbers for the game itself.
Despite the football, the night only other piece of major original programming, CBS' “Big Brother,” was actually up week-to-week, while ABC's “The Quest” was flat.
On to the numbers…
Among adults 18-49, NBC averaged an 8.4 rating for Thursday night, more than tripping the numbers for the other four networks in the key demographic. CBS was second with a 1.5 key demo rating, topping the combined totals for FOX (0.5 key demo), ABC (0.4 key demo) and The CW (0.2 key demo).
Overall, NBC averaged an estimated 22.505 million viewers and a 13.1 rating/22 share for Thursday night. CBS was far back in second with 5.66 million viewers and a 3.6/6. FOX and ABC both averaged a 1.4/2, with FOX averaging 2.16 million viewers to the 1.89 million for ABC. The CW averaged 506,000 viewers and a 0.4/1 for Thursday night.
8 p.m. – NBC led the 8 p.m. hour with NFL pregame (16.76 million and a 5.7 key demo) and the start of the Seahawks-Packers opener (24.67 million and an 8.8 key demo). CBS' repeats of “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Millers” averaged 7.03 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49 for second. ABC's “The Quest” averaged 1.88 million viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating, compared to the 1.635 million viewers and 0.5 key demo rating for FOX's “Sleepy Hollow” repeat. A “Vampire Diaries” repeat averaged 522,000 viewers and a 0.2 key demo rating.
9 p.m. – That should actually be Packers-Seahawks, since the game was in Seattle, but the 9 p.m. segment of the game averaged 25.46 million viewers and a 9.4 rating among adults 18-49 for NBC in the 9 p.m. hour. CBS' “Big Brother” was second with 6.36 million viewers and a 2.2 key demo rating. A “Bones” repeat averaged 2.69 million viewers and a 0.6 key demo rating on FOX, topping the 1.24 million viewers and 0.3 key demo rating on ABC. The CW's “Originals” repeat averaged 490,000 viewers and a 0.2 key demo rating.
10 p.m. – NBC's football action averaged 21.34 million viewers and an 8.5 rating among adults 18-49 in the 10 p.m. hour. CBS' “Elementary” repeat averaged 3.6 million viewers and a 0.8 key demo rating, followed by the 2.56 million viewers and 0.6 key demo rating for a “Shark Tank” repeat on ABC.
All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change, particularly in the case of live events.