“Sunday Night Football” on Christmas Day was the top show on television for the ratings week that ended on Christmas and helped propel NBC to a win in the key 18-49 demo. CBS, however, was still tops in the Household ratings.
Here’s an interesting factoid: The perennial holiday movie favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life,” from 1946 (in black & white) did better in the younger demos on Christmas Eve than when older viewers were added in. The airing on NBC was #34 for the week in 18-49, but only managed to place at #55 for HH.
Overall in HH, CBS had an average 4.4 rating and 8 share, with NBC at 4.0/7, Fox 3.2/6, ABC 2.6/5, Univision 1.6/3, Telemundo and Ion 0.7/1, CW 0.6/1, TeleFutura 0.2/0 and Azteca America and EstrellaTV 0.1/0.
In 18-49 NBC was at 2.2/7, Fox 1.7/5, CBS 1.4/4, Univision and ABC 1.3/4, Telemundo 0.6/2, CW and Ion 0.3/1, TeleFutura 0.2/1 and EstrellaTV and Azteca America 0.1/0.
Here, due to a three-way tie, are the week’s top 22 programs:
| The Nielsen Company Broadcast Ranking Report | ||||||
| Network primetime (Live + SD) week of 12/19/11 – 12/25/11 | ||||||
| Rank | Program | Network | HH Rating | HH Share | 2+ Audience (000) | |
| 1 | NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL | NBC | 12.6 | 24 | 24019 | |
| 2 | SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK | NBC | 9.6 | 20 | 18671 | |
| 3 | NCIS | CBS | 7.8 | 13 | 12370 | |
| 4 | FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3 | NBC | 7.5 | 16 | 14731 | |
| 5 | NCIS: LOS ANGELES | CBS | 7.2 | 12 | 11427 | |
| 6 | X-FACTOR-THU | FOX | 7.1 | 12 | 12592 | |
| 7 | X-FACTOR-WED | FOX | 6.4 | 11 | 11233 | |
| 8 | BIG BANG THEORY, THE | CBS | 5.7 | 10 | 9283 | |
| 9 | MENTALIST, THE | CBS | 5.4 | 9 | 8473 | |
| 10 | UNFORGETTABLE | CBS | 5.2 | 9 | 8093 | |
| 11 | MIKE & MOLLY | CBS | 5.1 | 8 | 7772 | |
| 11 | TWO AND A HALF MEN | CBS | 5.1 | 8 | 7947 | |
| 13 | PERSON OF INTEREST | CBS | 5.0 | 8 | 8140 | |
| 14 | CSI | CBS | 4.8 | 8 | 7350 | |
| 14 | CSI: NY | CBS | 4.8 | 9 | 7331 | |
| 16 | 2 BROKE GIRLS | CBS | 4.6 | 7 | 7202 | |
| 16 | BLUE BLOODS | CBS | 4.6 | 9 | 7291 | |
| 16 | CRIMINAL MINDS | CBS | 4.6 | 7 | 6784 | |
| 19 | HAWAII FIVE-0 | CBS | 4.5 | 7 | 7028 | |
| 20 | MODERN FAMILY | ABC | 4.1 | 7 | 6397 | |
| 20 | RULES OF ENGAGEMENT | CBS | 4.1 | 7 | 6766 | |
| 20 | TERRA NOVA | FOX | 4.1 | 6 | 7236 | |
| Source: The Nielsen Company | ||||||
