RATINGS RECAP: 9/28/14

ABC
7:00 Once Upon a Time: Storybrooke Has Frozen Over
Viewers: 5.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.6
8:00 Once Upon a Time
Viewers: 10.2 million, 18-49 demo: 3.7
9:00 Resurrection
Viewers: 8.4 million, 18-49 demo: 2.5
10:00 Revenge
Viewers: 5.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5

CBS
7:00 60 Minutes
Viewers: 9.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.1
8:00 Madam Secretary
Viewers: 12.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4
9:00 The Good Wife
Viewers: 11.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3
10:00 CSI
Viewers: 9.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3

NBC
7:00 Football Night in America
Viewers: 3.8 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2
8:00 NFL Pregame
Viewers: 13.0 million, 18-49 demo: 4.6
8:30 Sunday Night Football
Viewers: 22.7 million, 18-49 demo: 8.7

FOX
7:00 NFL Overrun
Viewers: 25.8 million, 18-49 demo: 9.0
8:00 The Simpsons
Viewers: 8.5 million, 18-49 demo: 3.9
8:30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Viewers: 5.5 million, 18-49 demo: 2.6
9:00 Family Guy
Viewers: 8.5 million, 18-49 demo: 4.5

Sunday night saw some very impressive results. After a week of doom and gloom since Gotham on Monday, FOX closed premiere week on a very high note. After a strong NFL overrun, The Simpsons premiered a full demo point higher than last year. Who knows if the FXX's "Every Simpsons Ever" marathon helped renew interest, but it couldn't hurt. At 8:30pm, Brooklyn Nine-Nine dipped a lot from its lead-in but did deliver its best numbers since the series premiere so it's so far, so good for the live action comedy experiment. It was also up from Bob's Burgers last year. The best result came at 9pm with Family Guy and its crossover with The Simpsons. The one hour episode delivered Family Guy's best demo since way back on January 9, 2011. FOX really programmed and promoted this night well and the results couldn't have been better for them.

ABC also had a pretty stunning night thanks to the everlasting magic of Frozen. The new storyline on Once Upon a Time bolstered the veteran drama to its best numbers since the second season premiere in September 2012. For a show that has shown continuous decline, this was quite a resurgence. Will it sustain itself through the whole Frozen arc during the first half of the season? We'll see. The halo effect continued to Resurrection, which was up nicely from the last several weeks of the season. It posted its best numbers since the third episode on March 23. While I still think the trajectory will be bad for this show, it was a much more positive start than I expected. The good news did not extend to Revenge. It was only a tenth ahead of its season finale and way behind last fall. The trajectory for this show is much worse than Once and Resurrection and I wouldn't be surprised if ABC ends up announcing this as the final season.

CBS did well in total viewers, but was very old-skewing. Week two of Madam Secretary was down 2.1 million viewers and six tenths in the demo. This looks like a rough drop but it had a football inflated premiere last week that led to its 60 Minutes lead-in dropping over two full demo points. That makes it hard to compare the two weeks. We'll have to see what happens the next time CBS has a late NFL game. At 9pm, The Good Wife didn't deal with the brunt of the difference of a lead-in and held up much better. It was even in viewers and down a tenth in the demo. With both Madam and The Good Wife, it really depends on what kind of viewers are watching these shows. CSI's move to Sunday was not promising as it easily hit a series low in the demo by three tenths (once upon a time, it's demo was in the 11s, now it's the low 1s). If it can't show a little life on Sunday, this could very well be the final season for the long-running drama. Right now, it does look any better than The Mentalist here. NBC's NFL game between the Saints and Cowboys was up nearly a full demo point from last week despite the onslaught of competition.

WINNER OF THE NIGHT: Family Guy (FOX)
LOSER OF THE NIGHT: CSI (CBS)