It’s a sporty kinda time out there in TV land, as evidenced by the top two shows on the broadcast networks for the week ending Nov. 8. Fox scored a home run with the final game in the World Series, which saw the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies. The game drew 22.3 million viewers on Wednesday night to take the No. 1 position. NBC’s perennially high-performing Sunday Night Football franchise—serving up a showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles—followed right after that in the No. 2 spot with 21.9 million viewers. The highest-rated non-sporting event for the week—and the No. 3 spot overall—went to NCIS on CBS, which drew 20.2 million viewers in its Tuesday-evening timeslot.
Outside of those top three performers, nothing much was surprising in the rest of the week’s Top 20, except for the overall performance of ABC’s V, which premiered on Tuesday evening to 14.3 million viewers, good enough for No. 11 overall. The debut of V was the highest-rated freshman premiere of the 2009-10 season, and surprisingly, it drew the highest 18-49 viewership (6.8 million viewers, or 48 percent of its total audience) for all non-sports programming on the broadcast networks, which is quite the feat for a new program.
The week’s full Top 20—complete with viewership totals—can be found after the jump.
1. World Series Game 6 | Fox | 22.3 million
2. Sunday Night Football | NBC | 21.9 million
3. NCIS | CBS | 20.2 million
4. World Series Game 5 | Fox | 17.1 million
5. 60 Minutes | CBS | 16.9 million
6. Dancing with the Stars Monday | ABC | 16.7 million
7. The Mentalist | CBS | 16.2 million
8. CSI | CBS | 15.6 million
9. NCIS: Los Angeles | CBS | 15.3 million
10. Dancing with the Stars Tuesday | ABC | 15.1 million
11. V | ABC | 14.3 million
12. Grey’s Anatomy | ABC | 14.0 million
13. Desperate Housewives | ABC | 13.8 million
14. Two and a Half Men | CBS | 13.5 million
15. The Good Wife | CBS | 12.7 million
(tie) 15. The Big Bang Theory | CBS | 12.7 million
17. Criminal Minds | CBS | 12.5 million
(tie) 17. CSI: Miami | CBS | 12.5 million
19. Survivor: Samoa | CBS | 12.4 million
20. CSI: NY | CBS | 12.0 million
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