TV Ratings: NFL ‘Sunday Night Football’ Dips, ‘Survivor’ Finale Down

Nothing says winter finale like a wedding, and that is what they had on Revenge (1.5/4) last night. Despite a bloodied bridal dress, gunshots and all the twists you’d expect from the soap’s third-cycle midseason ender, Sunday’s fast-paced episode dipped 6% from last week. Sunday also saw the midseason finale of Revenge’s lead-in Once Upon A Time (1.9/5). The fairytale drama fell 14% from last week to tie the series low of December 1. Revenge’s lead-out, Betrayal (0.8/2), had a better night: The freshman ended ABC’s evening up 14% in adults 18-49 for its highest-rated episode since its second show October 6. ABC started the night with America’s Funniest Home Videos (1.4/5), which was down a tenth from last week’s season high. Betrayal, Revenge and America’s Funniest Home Videos are all back January 5, while Once Upon A Time doesn’t return for the rest of its third season until March 9.

The battle for the AFC took another twist last night as NBC’s Sunday Night Football ( 4.9/13) saw the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 30-20. The game at Heinz Field was a blowout by halftime, and it saw an 18% drop in fast nationals from last week’s 6.0/14, which later rose to a 6.9/17 in its 8:31-11:18 PM slot. That could end up being the lowest-rated SNF so far this season. Down 14% from the 12.7/20 metered market results of last week’s Carolina Panthers-New Orleans Saints matchup, last night’s game pulled in a 10.9/18 rating in metered markets households; Pittsburgh topped the local markets with a 39.4/54. Cincinnati was second with a 33.2/48, followed by Dayton 22.2/33; Baltimore, 17.1/27; and Las Vegas 15.4/24. As always with NFL games and other live sports, expect an adjustment in the final numbers later today. NBC was a near No. 2 in adults 18-49 last night with a 4.0/11 rating, just behind Fox’s 4.1/11. Still the Peacock took the night in total viewers with 12.2 million.

That Fox rating was due in no small part to some spillover of regional NFL coverage and their The OT into primetime. Still, after that, the network did have an almost full night of animation originals. The Simpsons (3.5/9) at 8 PM was up 13% over last week. Bob’s Burgers (2.4/6) was up 14%, while Family Guy (3.0/7), which saw the return of Brian, and American Dad (2.4/6) were up 11% and 14% respectively.

It was almost all Survivor (2.5/7) all the time on CBS last night. However, with NFL regional overruns in East Coast markets like New York and Chicago and in the Central time zone, the start of CBS’ primetime was pushed back. In some places it was just 5 minutes, in others up to 25 minutes — all of which renders CBS’ early ratings tentative and likely to change. With that said, the two-hour finale of the 27th season of the reality series was down 22% from last fall’s finale on December 16 to hit a finale series low. The live Survivor Reunion (1.9/5) special also hit a low, down from the 2.3 of last fall’s reunion special, which ran out of primetime at 11 PM owing to football overruns. CBS started the night with 60 Minutes (1.7/5), which was down 15% from last week.