‘TNF’ Falls With Steelers-Vikings Game; ‘Young Sheldon’ Leads Thursday’s Non-Sports Fare

Thursday primetime unsurprisingly belonged to Fox’s coverage of the NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings as the sports event drew in the night’s biggest audience and highest demo rating.

The Minnesota Vikings pulled through with success, beating the Steelers 36-28. The game brought in a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demo and 9.51 million viewers, per fast affiliates. While the latest NFL event meant yet another Thursday win for Fox, the game fell sharply from last week’s Cowboys-Saints showdown (2.9, 11.27M), which was up against NBC’s Annie Live! production.

In the non-sports side of Thursday primetime, Young Sheldon (0.6, 6.79M) earned the evening’s second-highest demo rating – tied with Law & Order: Organized Crime – and viewership. Steady from the week before, Young Sheldon bested Station 19 (0.5, 3.93M), The Blacklist (0.3, 2.83M) and Walker (0.2, 0.98M), which has a prequel series in the works at the CW.

All of CBS’ shows were stable from the previous week, including newcomer Ghosts (0.5, 5.57M). In the 9 p.m. hour Ghosts tied latest installments of Grey’s Anatomy (0.5, 3.51M) and Law & Order: SVU (0.5, 3.41M), but topped the two in viewership.

NBC topped the final hour of Thursday primetime with Law & Order: Organized Crime (0.6, 3.41M), outdoing Bull (0.3, 3.85M) and Big Sky (0.3, 2.40M).