Eli Manning saves.
An NFL championship game sampled by 96.2 million people, combined with the return of American Idol, kept Fox in the black as the inventory of TV's top scripted shows all but expired.
Fox averaged 24.3 million viewers for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats, far more than any other network.
The game changer was Sunday's New York Giants-Green Bay Packers contest that, as Fox's luck would have it, ran all the way to overtime.
The matchup, deciding a spot in the Feb. 3 Super Bowl, averaged 53.9 million viewers, more than any TV show, excluding Super Bowls, since 1998's Seinfeld finale, Fox said.
American Idol, meanwhile, did its thing, meaning that for all the talk of it being "dead," the search for the next marginally successful pop star averaged 33.4 million on premiere night, and 30.4 million the next night.
Thanks to football, Idol and, to a lesser degree, reality shows such Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Fox has actually added viewers in the weeks since Hollywood writers stopped writing scripts. Prestrike, the network was averaging 9.5 million viewers; since the strike began, it's up about 2 percent.
CBS, which more than its competition relies on professionally plotted crime series, has headed in the opposite direction—it's down 2 percent since the strike began. (It also had the scheduling misfortune of airing the afternoon NFL championship game last weekend.)
The numbers only look to get worse for CBS, which—already fresh out of fresh CSIs—last week aired its final new episodes of NCIS, CSI: Miami and Without a Trace.
Over at ABC, barring a fast settlement and some even faster writing, powerhouses Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are done. But the network, down 15 percent since early November—and in all due respect to Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann—seems to be most acutely missing Dancing with the Stars.
No network has embraced the poststrike world more than NBC. But for all its boosterism of American Gladiators, the network is still in fourth place in viewers, up less than 1 percent. Still, up is up, and only it and Fox are up since the walkout started.
NBC, like Fox, benefited from high-rated late season and playoff NFL action. CBS did, too, but clearly less so.
The true test for all the networks comes Feb. 4. The day after the Super Bowl—the day TV's post-football season begins.
Here are last week's other rating highlights:
- Apparently, a repeat CSI is better than no CSI (ninth place, 14.1 million).
- More than 35 million people watched some or all of the western miniseries Comanche Moon (11th place, 12.6 million for part two; 13th place, 12.1 million for part three), CBS said. The 18-49 rankings said not one of the three installments finished in the top 25 among non-old people.
- American Gladiators (18th place, 10.6 million) is slipping in total viewers but remains a top 10 hit among younger viewers. Its second season will launch in the summer, NBC said.
- No, Dance War (20th place, 10.495 million) isn't Dancing with the Stars, but it was ABC's most watched show after Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (19th place, 10.497 million).
- ABC's Notes from the Underbelly has been so little watched that the network actually bragged that its audience broke the 4 million mark (71st place, 4.6 million).
- Ratings for the season finale of CBS' Amazing Race? Eh, not so amazing (24th place, 9.8 million).
- If NBC's ER (29th place, 8.9 million) falls down in the forest, and there's nobody around, does it make a different sound than when it runs out of new episodes, and nobody much notices?
- If Fox's Prison Break (35th place, 7.9 million) returns with new episodes, only to fall down in the forest next to NBC's Las Vegas (47th place, 6.5 million), does that mean ABC's Cashmere Mafia (55th place, 5.5 million) will pick up viewers by default?
- Answer to that last one: Probably not.
- In cable, USA's Monk (5.5 million) was the top scripted show; Bravo's Project Runway (3.3 million) was the top reality.
- The straight-to-video Bring It On sequels may not merit Kirsten Dunst's attention, but ABC Family Channel's rather fond of them. The premiere of Bring It On: In It to Win It (4.5 million), the week's most watched cable movie, gave the network its best numbers among teens since, yes, the premiere of Bring It On: All or Nothing.
- The Hallmark Channel's The Good Witch (4.2 million) did pretty well for a cable movie that didn't have any cheerleaders or stuff.
Overall, the week belonged to Fox, followed by CBS (9.7 million), NBC (7.8 million) and ABC (6.2 million). The CW (2 million) had a nice week for the History Channel.
In cable, USA (2.8 million) was tops in prime time, followed by Disney Channel (2.4 million) and TNT (2 million).
Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. NFC Championship (N.Y. Giants vs. Green Bay), Fox, 53.9 million viewers
2. NFC Championship—Gun, Fox, 40.6 million viewers
3. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 33.4 million viewers
4. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 30.4 million viewers
5. NFC Championship—Post Game, Fox, 23.1 million viewers
6. NCIS, CBS, 15.8 million viewers
7. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 15.1 million viewers
8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 14.8 million viewers
9. CSI, CBS, 14.1 million viewers
10. Without a Trace, CBS, 13.3 million viewers