ABC’s season premieres of Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters retained their May sweeps audiences, but NBC’s Sunday Night Football dwarfed the rest of the competition with an average total viewership of 14.1 million over three hours. Fox scored a solid debut for the highly anticipated The Cleveland Show: 9.4 million people tuned in — a 17 percent improvement on the animated newbie’s Simpsons lead-in. The premieres of Family Guy and American Dad improved on last season’s first-episode ratings for Fox as well.
On Friday night, impressive turnouts for returning series Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and Numb3rs delivered a ratings win for CBS. Below, a look at Sunday night’s stats.
| Time | Show | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00 p.m. | NFL Runover/60 Minutes (CBS) Football Night in America (NBC) Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC) Brothers (Fox) |
17.5 8.6 7.3 5.0 (repeat) |
| 7:30 | 60 Minutes (CBS) | 15.0 |
| 8:00 | NBC Sunday Night Football (NBC) The Amazing Race XV (CBS) Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC) The Simpsons (Fox) |
13.3 11.7 10.5 8.2 |
| 8:30 | The Cleveland Show (Fox) | 9.4 |
| 9:00 | NBC Sunday Night Football (NBC) Desperate Housewives (ABC) The Amazing Race XV (CBS) Family Guy (Fox) |
15.5 (continued) 13.2 9.9 (continued) 10.2 |
| 9:30 | American Dad (Fox) | 7.1 |
| 10:00 | NBC Sunday Night Football (NBC) Brothers and Sisters (ABC) Cold Case (CBS) |
13.6 (continued) 9.3 9.0 |
Source: Nielsen
Read more:
‘The Cleveland Show’ debut: Was it a good spinoff for you?
‘Amazing Race’ TV Watch: Meet the new teams
‘Desperate Housewives’ TV Watch: Going to the chapel
‘Brothers and Sisters’ recap: Tears and Fears
Comments (1-29) of 29 Add your comment
Can we get the stats from friday night. i would love to see how medium did.
tings.
NYLA, check tvbythenumbers.com or thrfeed.com for ratings
I actually liked the Cleveland Show. That little boy Rolle or whatever is name is, is funny. “I know y’all aint leaving without making these beds”. And when Cleveland freaked out about the cookies, “We out of nutter butters and Oreos”. I have heard people say that in real life. I really hope, as a Black person, they take some aspects of Black culture and make fun of it. Like how they did the R.Kelly thing.
But a huge drop from 24 million that watched the Dallas game last week. They were just curious with seeing the new massive Dallas stadium on national TV. Depends on which city and region of the teams that will attract the most viewers. And Extreme Makeover Home Edition seems to be slipping a bit. Maybe the concept of renovating and rebuilding a new home in 7 days is wearing out a bit. Ty Pennington’s done a good job the past 5 years on ABC, but maybe the show is aging and doesn’t jump out like the previous years. It was either 1st or 2nd in its time slot the first 3 yrs, but this 3rd place ranking and 10.5 million viewership isn’t impressive.
maybe they just wanted to watch one of the greatest rivalries in the NFL? plus, since the giants won the game they earned the right for it to be called the giants game.
It will always be labeled “The Cowboys Game” because the Cowboys have a massive amount of fans compared to most if not all teams in the nfl!!
The Cleveland show was HILARIOUS!!!! I kept thinking they MUST have some African Americans on their writing team b/c the “i know yall ain’t leaving without making these beds” is soooo something my uncle would say LOL!!! It also made me tolerate Sanaa Lathan which is an achievement all on its own!!!
and just when you think the R.Kelly peeing on folks bit has gotten old there he is dressed as a toilet “uhhh Flush” LOL!!!!
I am really confused that you don’t like Sanaa Lathan! I’ve never heard of anyone who dislikes her. She’s a great actress who doesn’t resort to lowering her standards just to get work. However, the show actually had the opposite effect on me…her voice work needs some personality.
I’m a HUGE Family Guy fan, but I couldn’t get all the way through Cleveland. The only real laughs came at the beginning– naturally involving the original Family Guy gang. Everything after that just feel completely flat for me.
I like Family Guy and American Dad, and I couldn’t believe how bad Cleveland was. I almost turned it off about 1/2 way through. My roommates and I were arguing over if this is a real show, or it’s a Seth MacFarlane joke to show how Fox will air anything. I was seriously expecting that by the end of the episode, Cleveland was going to end up back at Quahog and things would go back to how they were.
The ratings were probably Family Guy fans checking out the first episode. I don’t think it was very good, nor does it show any potential for improvement. Spinoffs are very hard to do right and many fail because the character was good only in the setting they were created for. Take them out of that setting and many times they fall flat. It would be interesting to see the numbers after next week.
I’m trying to like this show but it sterotypes us as ghetto and very uneducated .
I say that foxtv needs to have more sitcoms.
Enjoy the ratings, cause it won’t go this high again. Now that everyone knows how horrible the cleveland show is there really is nothing left but to ignore it until it goes away
I loved it. It also made me miss Good Times.
Good Times? Really?
Good Times? Really. Wow. Oh yea there all black. I see now.
I wanted to like it but it just wasn’t good. To me, it was trying to hard. I will give it another chance.
TAR did pretty good from the looks of it considering there was a 15 minute delay in the east/central time zones.
Family Guy was on point this Sunday. It was their most cohesive episode in years. It had a linear plot that didn’t veer off into non-sensical sight gags. And it was actually funny. I was impressed. “The Cleveland Show” was not too funny. Don’t know how it got an order for so many eps in advance. I wasn’t a fan. Maybe it will improve?
Love the Cleveland Show theme song…lol
The Cleveland Show was bad. As a Family Guy fan I was looking forward to the show, but also as a Family Guy fan I was very disappointed.
I’m white and I have to say the show was funnier than King of the Hill and American Dad! The R-kelly joke was off the chain funny! I don’t think America is really use to seeing black people on t.v. I think you just have to give it some time.
Cleveland was OK, DEFINITELY better than King of the Hill (i hated that show, the only thing mike judge did that was funny was Office Space). American Dad is ok as well, but all it seems to share with Family Guy is the same animator. The plot is in no way connected, so it’s hard to see similar looking characters in a completely different setting and plot. I think this Family Guy was the best one yet. And to think, after what, 3 seasons they canceled the show and people had to campaign to bring it back!?
Stats are garbage! Who believes Neilson. They’re so old school and besides I don’t believe anyone has ever really met a “Neilson family”. What about time shifting by satelite subscription and Tivo? The networks are so out of touch with what anyone is really watching.
I would rather watch 30 minutes of Christian Childrens Fund commercials than this show! or even the same episode of The Simpsons that just went off, I might laugh a little more than I did at this show…
I can’t believe how bad this show is and I can’t believe King of the Hill got canned for this crap. Bring back King of the Hill!
I thought it was tons funnier than the premiere of American Dad, and look how many seasons that’s been on. I honestly dont get what people arent liking about it. I seriously like it as much as Family Guy (except for the Christian Bear, just dont really see why he needs to be a bear, could’ve just been a really fat guy, or a Monkey or something funnier, but why a bear? That’s my ONLY complaint) I do think the writers need to step up thier game. But that’s my opinion on Family Guy, The Simpsons, and American Dad too.