Football fuels Fox to Sunday victory

The NY Giants' overtime victory within the Bay Area 49ers in football's NFC Championship game obtained monster rankings for Fox on Sunday -- drawing a lot more than four occasions the combined youthful-adult viewership of ABC, CBS and NBC. ABC's ''Once Upon a Time'' was the very best-ranked series, lower only a tick from a week ago. Reliable preliminary Nielsen estimations for that NFC Championship will not be accessible until later today, but Fox's stations averaged an 18.7 rating/40 be part of grown ups 18-49 and 50.a million audiences overall for that full amount of primetime Sunday. These amounts are required to develop nicely within the excellent because they don't precisely reflect West Coast viewing, and the overall game began around 6:40 p.m. ET. The internet than adopted at 10:57 p.m. ET having a special ''American Idol,'' which came a 7.9 demo rating and 19.8 million audiences, based on time zone-modified preliminary Nielsen amounts purchased by Fox the internet had wished to obtain ''Idol,'' around the air earlier, however the late football finish resulted in the background music series wound up airing from primetime in much of the nation for basically its first couple of minutes. Earlier within the day on CBS, the network's coverage from the AFC Championship between your Gambling and Baltimore Ravens came a 29.1 household rating/51 be part of Nielsen's metered-market overnights -- the very best score to have an mid-day AFC title game in 18 years game peaked having a 34.9/56 in the final fifteen minutes. In primetime, the internet broadcast ''60 Minutes'' (1.5/3 in 18-49, 7.9 million audiences overall), then ''Undercover Boss'' (2.2/5 in 18-49, 9.two million audiences overall) and repeats of ''The Good Wife'' (1.1/2 in 18-49, 5.six million audiences overall) and ''CSI: Miami'' (1.4/3 in 18-49, 6.two million audiences overall). ''Boss'' was lower dramatically from a week ago if this did not face football. ABC tied to its regular selection, opening with ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' (1.2/3 in 18-49, 5.two million audiences overall) after which surging at 8 p.m. with ''Once Upon a Time'' (3.2/7 in 18-49, 9.3 million audiences overall), which while substandard, only agreed to be slightly removed from a week ago if this faced just the concluding ten minutes of football. Also inside a tick was ''Desperate Housewives'' (2.6/5 in 18-49, 7.5 million audiences overall), and ''Pan Am'' closed the evening (1.3/3 in 18-49, 3.9 million audiences overall) up slightly from a week ago. NBC broadcast a 2-hour ''Dateline'' (1.1/2 in 18-49, 5.two million audiences overall) then two special original instances of the canceled cop drama ''Prime Suspect'' (.8/2 in 18-49, 4.3 million audiences overall at 9 and .7/2 in 18-49, 3.six million audiences overall at 10). Preliminary 18-49 earnings for that evening: Fox, 18.7/40 ABC, 2./4 CBS, 1.6/3 NBC, .9/2 Univision, .8/2. As a whole audiences: Fox, 50.a million CBS, 7.two million ABC, 6.4 million NBC, 4.six million Univision, 2.5 million. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com