Sunday 1/8/12 – CBS' AFC Wildcard Overshadows Weak Debut of NBC's The Firm

With about half of its AFC Wildcard Game (14.44) coverage between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos landing in Primetime, CBS easily averaged the largest A18-49 audience Sunday night, with the network's remaining lineup of 60 Minutes (4.34), The Good Wife (2.25) and CSI: Miami (2.31) benefiting from the overrun, as each program reported greater A18-49 viewership than their previous original airings.

Ranking fourth for the night, NBC began its post-NFL Sunday night schedule with the two-hour season premiere of Dateline NBC (1.13), improving 11% from a year ago and leading into the two-hour series debut of The Firm (1.28), which reported a 42% drop among A18-49 viewers from last year's series opener of The Cape (01/09/11) and a 19% decline from the series debut of cancelled drama, Prime Suspect (09/22/11).

Rolling out a full lineup of originals for the first time in over a month, ABC reported double-digit percent viewership improvement with the latest episodes of Once Upon a Time (2.46) and Desperate Housewives (2.27), though experienced smaller audiences with America's Funniest Home Videos (1.24) and Pan Am (1.06), resulting in a second place finish for the network among A18-49 viewers.

Trailing slightly behind ABC, FOX opened the evening with repeats of Bob's Burgers (0.70) and The Cleveland Show (0.92) during the 7pm hour, followed by original episodes of The Simpsons (1.90), The Cleveland Show (2.00), Family Guy (2.60) and American Dad (1.96), with only the former and latter experiencing significant declines with A18-49 from their previous airings on 12/11/11.

Source: Nielsen, based on Live data.