TV Ratings: ‘The Simpsons’ Scores Big Season Premiere Behind NFL Lead-In
“The Simpsons” premiered its record 32nd season on Sunday night to big numbers, mainly thanks to a strong NFL lead-in.
The return of Homer, Marge and co. delivered a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49 and drew 5.5 million total viewers. That’s more than double the previous season premiere on both metrics, with the caveat that the football gave it a 4.8 and 15 million viewer lead-in. The rest of Fox’s Animation Domination Sunday schedule also put up good numbers. “Bless the Harts” kicked off season 2 with a 0.8 rating and 2.2 million viewers, an improvement on its series premiere from 2019. “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” both scored a 0.7 rating, with the former drawing 1.8 million viewers and the latter 1.7 million.
NBC easily won the night overall thanks to “Sunday Night Football,” which was ticked up around 5% from last week’s fast national numbers, coming in with a 4.4 rating and just under 15 million viewers. Those decent figures are hardly a surprise, given that the game was a thrilling showdown between the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers, and the New Orleans Saints led by Drew Brees.
Over on CBS, “Big Brother” ticked down around 18% from last Sunday in the face of stiff competition, coming in at a 0.9 rating and 4.1 million viewers. “Love Island” was even at a 0.4 and 1.8 million. Earlier on, a new edition of “60 Minutes” scored a 0.7 and around 7.3 million viewers. An “NCIS: New Orleans” replay rounded things off with a 0.2 and 1.6 million pairs of eyeballs.
ABC aired its two-hour “$ellebrity: The Go-To Girls,” which asked the question what does it take to be a celebrity? The special averaged a 0.3 rating and around 1.8 million viewers across it runtime. An “America’s Funniest Home Videos” preceded it with a 0.4, while a “Card Sharks” replay succeeded it with a 0.1
“Local” scored a 0.1 and 464,000 viewers for the CW, followed by two hours of iHeartRadio Music Festival coverage.
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