Sunday 01/29/12 - NBC's NFL Pro Bowl Dominates

Filling the week off between the Playoffs and Super Bowl, NBC's NFL coverage of the 2012 Pro Bowl (4.06 A18-49 Live Rating), featuring All-Stars from the AFC versus NFC, easily garnered the largest A18-49 audience Sunday night. Growing 16% from its Pre-Game show, this year's edition of the Pro Bowl could not surpass FOX's coverage a year ago, as NBC's coverage declined 10% with A18-49 viewers.

Landing in a distant second place, CBS rolled out all new episodes of its Sunday night lineup, including 60 Minutes (1.25), Undercover Boss (2.60), The Good Wife (1.75) and CSI: Miami (1.98). After beginning the evening with a 9% viewing loss from last week's episode of 60 Minutes, the network experienced growth of 31% and 13%, respectively, among its next two programs, before CSI: Miami closed the evening with a drop of 14% from three weeks ago.

Fueled by the latest airings of America's Funniest Home Videos (1.71) and Once Upon a Time (2.45), which grew 61% and 14%, respectively, among A18-49 from a week ago, ABC landed third with the demo Sunday night. Following its original telecasts to start the evening, the network featured a special two-hour movie airing of A Smile As Big As The Moon (1.44) at 9pm, which dropped 26% from last year.

Finishing behind its broadcast counterparts, FOX kicked off the evening with a repeat of Bob's Burgers (0.71) at 7pm, followed by original airings of The Cleveland Show (1.13), The Simpsons (1.93), Napoleon Dynamite (1.89), Family Guy (2.42) and American Dad (2.06). Lacking the stronger lead-in of the NFC Championship game from two weeks ago, the network experienced significant declines beginning during the 8pm hour, with only American Dad holding relatively steady from 01/15/12.

Across cable Sunday night, E! landed the largest A18-49 cable audience, fueled primarily by the one-hour season 2 finale of Kourtney & Kim Take New York (2.01), which reported more than double the viewership from the program's first season closer on 04/03/11. Additionally, the increase in A18-49 viewers for the reality program helped the network's second season finale of After Lately (0.89) at 11pm, which also grew by triple-digit percentages from its previous closer on 04/24/11.

Turner cable networks TBS (0.72) and TNT (0.68) simulcasted The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night. While TBS reported 7% growth among A18-49, TNT dropped by 17%, leaving both networks trailing USA, Bravo and History among A18-49 cable viewers, with TNT also landing behind FX and ESPN on the evening.

Source: Nielsen, based on Live data