Saturday 1/7/12 – Viewers Choose NFL Playoffs over Republican Debate

As the NFL moved into post-season play, NBC's Primetime coverage of the NFC Wildcard Game (10.65 A18-49 Live Rating), featuring the Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints, was easily Saturday's highest rated program, providing the network with the largest A18-49 audience as the game reported a slight drop from the network's AFC Primetime game last year (NY Jets vs. Indianapolis Colts), but a 17% improvement over last year's NFC afternoon matchup (New Orleans Saints vs. Seattle Seahawks).

ABC's special telecast of Wipeout (0.82) combined with the network's two-hour Republican Debate special, Your Voice, Your Vote (0.94), landed the network in a distant second among A18-49 Saturday night, tying with Univision's Sabado Gigante (0.90) among A18-49.

Repeat Episodes of CBS' Comedytime, Crimetime and an original 48 Hours Mystery (0.92) averaged the same A18-49 viewership as FOX's episodes of Cops (0.90), Cops 2 (0.98) and encore of Terra Nova (0.42), with both networks landing at the bottom of the broadcast landscape.

Source: Nielsen, based on Live data.