Sunday 5th October: CW struggles for viewers

CBS kicked off the night with strong performances from the Football overrun and a solid performance by the older skewing 60 minutes. CBS was stable across the night with the Amazing Race and Cold Case above the magic 10M mark, however Cold Case struggled in the younger demos only scoring 2.5/6 (rating/share) in the 18-49 demo and a mere 1.6/4 in the 18-34 demo. Its lead-out program The Unit remained steady on last week with 9.4M viewers and strong demos for a usually older skewing network.

Over at ABC, the stalwart America's Funniest Home Videos continues to do the job for the ABC, however its demos are worrying. Extreme Makeover followed, I have no idea about this show, but it did do well in total viewers and demos. But it was no match for the long running Simpsons, anniliating the competition in the 18-34 demographic with a winning 4.5/13 share. Even though numbers for this long running comedy are low, those demos should keep the execs at FOX happy. King of the Hill, which in my opinion is the funniest animated comedy, scored a credible 6.6M with smashing 3.3/8 in the 18-49 and 3.8/10 in the 18-34 demos. However all eyes were on the premiere of Valentine at 8pm on The CW, The CW have decided to lease out their Sundays to the Media Rights Captial but going by the paltry ratings, this will probably be the last of such deals. Valentine received a small sampling with 1.1M and 0.4/1 in both key demos.

In the 9pm hour, all eyes were on the second episode of Desperate Housewives. But it disappointed with only 15.5M and 5.8/13 and 4.8/12 in the demos, this is down a massive 3M and 1.2 in the 18-49 demo. On the otherhand my favourites, Family Guy and American Dad scored an impressive 4.3/10 and 3.5/8 in the 18-49 demo respectively and 4.4/11 and 5.4/14 in the 18-34 demo. Amazing Race also deserves a mention as it was sampled by 11M viewers with competitive demos. But lets forget Easy Money, what a snooze fest that was.
At 10pm Brothers and Sisters was up against the second half hour of Cold Case and the first half of The Unit. It had a ~66% retention out of the Housewives and scored well in the demos.