Sunday night proved that America was truly "ready for some football," as NBC handily won the evening, carrying the NFL's first preseason game versus a soft premiere from ABC's "Secret Millionaire."
NBC was first in ratings with a 2.9 rating/6 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and first in total viewers with an average of 8 million, according to preliminary numbers — though due to the nature of live sports, the 3.4/11 and 10 million viewers (both tops on the night) from the "Sunday Night Football" pregame show at 8 p.m. and the 3.3/9 and 8.9 million viewers for the game at 8:30 are approximate. NBC aired a rerun before both.
CBS was second in ratings with a 1.3/4 and in total viewers with 6.6 million. Bookended by repeats, "Big Brother" at 8 earned a 2.2/7 with 6.8 million viewers, while "Unforgettable" at 9 received a 1.2/3 and 7 million viewers.
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Fox was third in ratings with a 1.2/4 and fourth in total viewers with 2.4 million viewers, airing entirely reruns.
ABC was in fourth in ratings with a 0.9/3 and third in total viewers with 3.8 million. After a rerun at 7, the season premiere of "Secret Millionaire" at 8 earned a 1.2/4 and 5 million viewers, down 20 percent from last summer's debut. At 9, "Whodunnit?" got a 1.0/3 and 3 million viewers.
Univision was in fifth in ratings with a 0.8/2 and in viewers with 2 million.
Telemundo was sixth in ratings with a 0.6/2 and total viewers 1.5 million.