Ratings Watch: The Return of NFL Rules Primetime

Michael Schneider September 20, 2015, 7:03 pm

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One glance at last week’s Nielsen ranker and it’s clear that football is back.

Viewers rushed back to the NFL, making the first official game of the season the second-most-watched Thursday night kickoff game in the event’s 14-year history. NFL games and pre-game shows made up four of the five most-watched programs of the week on television.

Here are the top 25 shows (including Live+3 DVR and VOD data) for the week of September 7 to 13.

RANK	SHOW & NETWORK	LIVE+3 DAYS DVR/VOD	WATCHED LIVE/ SAME DAY
1	NFL Thursday Special: Pittsburgh vs. New England NBC	27.6	27.4
2	Sunday Night Football: NY Giants vs. Dallas NBC	26.9	26.8
3	NFL Opening Kick-Off Show NBC	12.6	12.6
4	Football Night in America NBC	12.4	12.4
5	America’s Got Talent (Wednesday) NBC	12.0	10.5
6	60 Minutes CBS	11.7	11.5
7	Fear the Walking Dead AMC	10.7	7.2
8	America’s Got Talent (Wednesday) NBC	10.3	9.5
9	NCIS CBS	8.7	8.4
10	The Big Bang Theory CBS	8.3	7.7
11	Big Brother (Sunday) CBS	8.0	7.0
12	Saturday Night Football: Oregon vs. Michigan State ABC	7.9	7.9
13	Big Brother (Wednesday) CBS Zoo CBS	7.5 7.5	6.6 5.7
15	Miss America Competition ABC	7.4	7.1
16	Big Brother (Thursday) CBS	7.3	6.1
17	American Ninja Warrior NBC	6.8	6.2
18	Dateline (Friday) NBC	6.7	5.6
19	The Big Bang Theory (Monday) CBS Under the Dome CBS	6.6 6.6	6.4 4.2
21	MasterChef Fox	6.2	4.8
22	Bachelor in Paradise (Monday) ABC	6.0	4.8
23	Extant CBS	5.7	4.5
24	NCIS: Los Angeles CBS	5.6	5.4
25	Blue Bloods CBS Mom CBS Last Comic Standing NBC	5.5 5.5 5.5	5.1 5.3 4.4