While football came out on top as the big winner of last night’s television, Pan Am has cause to celebrate, for delivering solid numbers and managing to top the return of Desperate Housewives, which served as the lead-in to ABC’s new drama series.
According to Deadline, NBC’s Sunday Night Football won the night as the Steelers/Colts game earned itself a 13.2 overnight rating. Meanwhile, things didn’t go nearly as well for Desperate Housewives and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, with DH down 28% from last seasons numbers, earning 9.8 million viewers for last night’s season premiere. Pan Am which debuted last night following Desperate Housewives, topped DH by more than a million viewers, earning 3.1/8 in adults 18-49.
While some may have tuned in to ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to see First Lady Michelle Obama, the ratings for the feel-good home renovation series, which aired two episodes last night, were also down from last year (ratings:1.3/4, and 2.3/6).
Fox’s Animation Domination line-up didn’t do so bad, with The Simpsons up from last season’s premiere with 3/8/10 rating. While Family Guy was down from last year by 9% with 4.1/9, both series managed to win the night among non-sports programs watched by the 18-49 demo. American Dad and The Cleveland Show were about even with last season’s premieres, with 3.0/7 and 3.1/7 respectively.
Finally, CBS’ primetime took a hit, largely due to the places where football bumped things back on the line-up, The Amazing Race’ season premiere was down by 21% from last year with 3.0/7. The Good Wife was down by 12% from last year with 2.2/5, and CSI: MIami suffered a 31% drop from last year with 2.2/5.
60 Minutes’ premiere was also down in ratings with 2.6/7 for its premiere, which is a shame as it featured a segment on South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and included footage of their hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. If you missed it, you can watch it here!
