Fox scored a ratings victory on Thursday night with the NFL pre-season game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, while ABC showed strong gains across the board and "Big Brother"'s already imposing ratings climbed 11 percent, according to preliminary numbers.
While final, time-zone adjusted numbers for the game have not yet been issued, early reports indicate that the NFL match-up gave Fox an average 3.0 rating/9 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, handily winning the demo, and an average of 8.3 million total viewers.
Meanwhile, at CBS, "Big Brother" at 9 p.m. put up an impressive showing, growing 11 percent from last week with a 3.0/8 in the demo (which might be adjusted down once NFL pre-emptions are factored in) and 7.9 million total viewers. The remainder of the network's primetime roster consisted of repeats.
ABC's "Wipeout" at 8 had a 1.9/7 in the demo and 6.7 million total viewers. It jumped 36 percent from last week's summer low for the series. "Expedition Impossible" followed at 9, growing 18 percent over last week with a 1.3/4 in the demo and 4.5 million total viewers. "Rookie Blue" closed the evening at 10 with a 20 percent gain versus last week, racking up a 1.2/4 in the demo an 4.6 million total viewers.
NBC ran repeats throughout the evening.
