It’s hard to say which was a bigger romp: The Atlanta Falcons crushing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 56-14, or CBS reaping the benefits with a resounding “Thursday Night Football” primetime victory.
In reality, it was probably the former blowout, as the noncompetitive pro football game was down quite a bit from last week’s “Thursday Night Football” broadcast network debut.
CBS was first in ratings with a 3.2 rating/10 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and first in viewers with an average of 9 million, according to preliminary numbers. The “Thursday Night Football” pregame show at 8 p.m. received a 2.3/9 and 7.9 million viewers. The pregame show was down 34 percent from last week, which had the newsy hook of the Ray Rice incident.
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NBC was second in ratings with a 1.2/4 and in viewers with 4.4 million. “Biggest Loser” at 8 received a 1.3/5 — a new regular low — and 4.6 million viewers. A repeat followed.
Univision was third in ratings with a 1.1/4 and in viewers with 3.1 million.
ABC and Telemundo were fourth in ratings, both with a 0.7/2. ABC was third in viewers with 3.6 million, airing reruns. Telemundo was sixth with 1.6 million.
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Fox was sixth in ratings with a 0.5/2 and fifth in total viewers with 2.1 million, airing reruns.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.2/1 and in total viewers with 600,000, airing repeats.