Ratings: CBS Dominates Monday With Makeup NFL Game Due to COVID

NFL football works on Monday nights — who knew? (ESPN knows.) CBS dominated primetime last night with the Kansas City Chiefs victory over the New England Patriots, a game that was postponed from Sunday due to positive COVID-19 tests on both teams. Though the Monday night football (not to be confused with “Monday Night Football”) game was not a particularly tight one and lacked Patriots star quarterback Cam Newton (who tested positive for COVID), it worked to the detriment of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” which shed two-tenths of a Nielsen point from last week’s rating. Due to the nature of live coast-to-coast television, the below Nielsen data for CBS should be considered subject to particularly heavy adjustment in final figures.

CBS was first in ratings with a 2.6 rating/14 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 9.4 million, according to preliminary numbers. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., the football game averaged a 3.6/19 and 12.7 million viewers. “Big Brother” at 10 landed a 0.8/5 and 3 million viewers.

ABC was second in ratings with a 0.8/4 and in viewers with 5.2 million. “Dancing With the Stars” from 8-10 drew a 0.9/5 and 6 million viewers. “Emergency Call” at 10 had a 0.6/4 and 3.5 million viewers.

NBC and Univision tied for third in ratings, both with a 0.4/2. NBC was third in total viewers with 2.7 million, Univision was fifth with 1.2 million.

On NBC, the Joe Biden town hall at 8 got a 0.5/3 and 3.8 million viewers. “American Ninja Warrior” from 9-11 averaged a 0.4/2 and 2.1 million viewers.

Fox and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings, both with a 0.3/2. Fox was fourth in total viewers with 1.6 million, Telemundo was sixth with 1 million.

For Fox, “L.A.’s Finest” at 8 had a 0.3/2 and 1.7 million viewers. At 9, “Filthy Rich” received a 0.3/2 and 1.6 million viewers.

The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.2/1 and in viewers with 775,000. “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” at 8 got a 0.2/1 and 845,000 viewers. Following a rerun, “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” had a 0.2/1 and 752,000 viewers.