Football, talent shows and comedy give NBC a win

[September 19, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The new television season won't start officially until next week, but a few early birds have already taken wing, with one of them -- "Go On" -- flying high last week.

This NBC comedy starring Matthew Perry officially premiered last Tuesday and attracted almost 9.8 million viewers, making it the week's 10th most-watched show, according to the Nielsen Co.

Another NBC sitcom, "The New Normal," premiered the same night and was seen by seven million viewers, landing it 17th among all prime-time shows. Yet another NBC comedy, "Guys With Kids," got a healthy reception. It debuted last Wednesday to 6.3 million viewers, ranking 26th for the week.

Meanwhile, NBC's football and talent competitions dominated in the waning days of the old season.

NBC's coverage of the football clash between Detroit and San Francisco was the week's most-watched telecast, seen by more than 21 million viewers.

Multiple airings of NBC's "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent" claimed several slots in the Top 10.

CBS' "60 Minutes," at No. 3, was the only non-NBC show in the Top 10.

Overall, NBC easily won the week, averaging nine million viewers (5.6 rating, 9 share). CBS had 6.16 million viewers (4.1 rating, 7 share), Fox had 5.15 million (3.1 rating, 5), ABC had 3.84 million (2.6 rating, 4 share), ION Television had 1.12 million (0.8 rating, 1 share) and the CW had 770,000 (0.5 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 3.43 million viewers (1.9 rating, 3 share). Telemundo had 1.04 million (0.6 rating, 1 share), TeleFutura had 600,000 (0.3 rating, 1 share), Estrella had 180,000 and Azteca had 110,000 (both with 0.1 rating, 0 share).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.15 million viewers (5.6 household rating, 11 share). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.60 million (5.2 rating, 11 share) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.74 million viewers (4.0 rating, 8 share).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Sept. 10-16, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: Sunday Night Football: Detroit at San Francisco, NBC, 21.33 million; "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 15.23 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.36 million; "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 12.29 million; "Football Night in America" Part 3, NBC, 11.74 million; "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 11.42 million; "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 11.05 million; "The Voice" (Wednesday), NBC, 10.89 million; "America's Got Talent" (Thursday), NBC, 10.59 million; "Go On," NBC, 9.73 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is owned by CBS Corp.; CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp.; Fox is a unit of News Corp.; NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp.; ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks; TeleFutura is a division of Univision; Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com/

[Associated Press; By FRAZIER MOORE]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.