RATINGS RECAP: 9/25/11

ABC
7:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Viewers: 5.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3
8:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Viewers: 8.8 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
9:00 Desperate Housewives
Viewers: 9.9 million, 18-49 demo: 3.2
10:00 Pan Am
Viewers: 11.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1

CBS
7:00 60 Minutes
Viewers: 12.3 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
8:00 The Amazing Race
Viewers: 10.2 million, 18-49 demo: 3.0
9:00 The Good Wife
Viewers: 10.7 million, 18-49 demo: 2.2
10:00 CSI: Miami
Viewers: 9.9 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3

NBC
7:00 Football Night in America
Viewers: 5.8 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
8:00 NFL Pregame
Viewers: 12.0 million, 18-49 demo: 4.6
8:30 Sunday Night Football
Viewers: 20.4 million, 18-49 demo: 8.3

FOX
7:00 NFL Overrun
Viewers: 24.0 million, 18-49 demo: 9.4
7:30 The OT
Viewers: 12.2 million, 18-49 demo: 5.3
8:00 The Simpsons
Viewers: 8.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.9
8:30 The Cleveland Show
Viewers: 6.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1
9:00 Family Guy
Viewers: 7.7 million, 18-49 demo: 4.1
9:30 American Dad!
Viewers: 5.8 million, 18-49 demo: 3.0

On the final night of premiere week, ABC was the only network to premiere a brand new show and it got good results from it. Pan Am, the 1960s Jet Age drama, managed to build from its Desperate Housewives lead-in in total viewers and nearly matched it in the demo. It was a great showing but week 2 is always the big indicator for shows. Still, ABC has to be encouraged by this result. Why didn't they launch a new drama behind Housewives when it was more potent instead of letting Brothers & Sisters stay there for years. Meanwhile, Housewives was still a player in the demo but far below its premiere last year of 13.1 million viewers and a 4.3 demo. It's a good thing that this is the final season for this show because it is losing steam fast. Earlier in the night, the soon-to-relocate two hours of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was weak in the first hour but climbed nicely in the second. 

Over on CBS, 60 Minutes got the night off to a solid start with football affecting CBS in some markets. The season premiere of The Amazing Race followed and was way down from last year's football-fueled start. It was still solid but does appear to be skewing older. The transplanted The Good Wife followed and did basically the same numbers it did on Tuesday. The plus side is that it appears most viewers followed it over. The downside is that it didn't seem to pick up any new viewers. Finally, CSI: Miami was down pretty substantially from last year's 11.8 million viewers and 3.2 demo. Will it be the first CSI to go? An NFL game between the Steelers and Colts was dominant as usual for NBC but did not pull the ratings that the last two games did.

Over on FOX, with football and The OT as a lead-in, all of their toons got at least a 3 in the demo for their season premieres. The Simpsons got off to a good start for its 23rd (!) season. The Cleveland Show continued to bleed a lot of the lead-in but still got a 3.1 demo. It will move to 7:30pm when Allen Gregory launches at the end of October. As usual, the demo standout was Family Guy with a strong 4.1 (though last year its season premiere got a 4.5 without a football-fueled kickoff to the night). Finally, American Dad! was once again the weakest link but still got a 3 demo. Why does it keep going back to the 9:30pm slot?