Football scores large for week

Network game broadcasts demonstrated typical holiday strength because the "Sunday Evening Football" game assigned a large week of pigskin. Inside a Thanksgiving frame that saw preemptions or lower-than-usual rankings for many of primetime's greatest hits because of lower television usage, football ruled supreme.Pigskin won in key demos on four nights a week ago (Monday, Thursday, Saturday or sunday), with NBC's "Sunday Evening Football" game between Pittsburgh and Might at the forefront as always (7.9/18 in grown ups 18-49, 20.34 million audiences overall).And capping a Thursday filled with football, National football league Network came its biggest Thanksgiving audience up to now for the overall game featuring the very first showdown in league history between mind-training siblings: John Harbaugh from the Baltimore Ravens and Jim Harbaugh from the Bay Area 49ers (4.1/13, 10.68m).Overall, CBS used a extended National football league overrun on Sunday to win a few days overall, including grown ups 18-49 (2.5/7 to two.1/6 for runner-up ABC) and total audiences (9.8 million to eight.7 million for ABC).Around the entertainment series side, the week's top-ranked draws incorporated CBS Monday comedies "2 . 5 Males" (5.2/13, 15.82m), "2 Broke Women" (4.6/12, 11.33m) and "The Way I Met Your Mother" (4.4/12, 10.01m) in addition to ABC's "DwtsInch finale on Tuesday (4.1/11, 19.56m) -- lower noticeably year upon year but nonetheless the week's most-viewed non-sports program.ABC also obtained with "Modern Family" on Wednesday (4.6/13, 12.72m), though this Thanksgiving Eve original episode was well below its usual rankings level and may begin a Digital recording device playback record when individuals full-week amounts are released in a few days.Sunday saw the autumn finale of AMC's "The Walking Dead" (prelim 3.4/8 in 18-49, 6.six million), that was up week to week because of its second greatest-ranked episode up to now. The zombie skein matched up the demo score of the identical night's "Not so long ago" on ABC (3.4/8, 10.69m), which drenched its cheapest same-evening demo delivery in the five airings up to now but is constantly on the stand because the season's most popular new drama.Also of note Sunday would be a weak start for that Hallmark Hall of Fame on ABC, because the franchise which had broadcast solely on CBS in excess of fifteen years came low rankings for that original presentation of "Mitch Albom's Possess a Little Belief" (1.1/2, 6.44m).Among holiday special offers, Fox worked out best using its Thursday combo of "Ice Age Mammoth" (2.3/7, 7.10m) and "Happiness is really a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown" (1.6/5, 4.92m), while ABC did OK exactly the same evening with "A Really Gaga Thanksgiving" (1.6/5, 5.49m).As well as on Friday, CBS saw modest scores for that premieres of "Hoops & Years old-Years old Ruin Christmas" (.8/3, 3.54m) and "Elf on the Shelf" (1.1/3, 4.18m). Because of the Christmas, the entire page of TV rankings charts for that week of November. 21-27 can look in Thursday's paper. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com