TV Ratings: Vikings' Surprise Win Powers Fox Sunday
A half-hour's worth of NFL was enough to propel the rest of the network's comedy block.
Sunday's surprise eleventh-hour win for the Minnesota Vikings was a huge win for Fox as well. The end of the game catapulted the network's primetime block.
The last half-hour of the game, which saw the New Orleans Saints briefly take the lead before the Vikings won in the final seconds, delivered 33.4 million viewers to Fox and a stunning 10.2 rating among adults 18-49. The Vikings will now face the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game. Full returns for the game won't arrive until later, but they naturally propelled the programs that followed. The Simpsons reaped the best rewards with a 3.5 rating among adults 18-49, followed by Bob's Burgers (2.2 adults), the 300th episode of Family Guy (1.7 adults) and The Last Man on Earth (1.3 adults).
The fight for a distant No. 2 went to ABC. America's Funniest Home Videos (1.2 adults) led into two episodes of Shark Tank, which returned 1.3 and 1.2 ratings among adults 18-49.
60 Minutes (0.8 adults), Wisdom of the Crowd (0.7 adults), NCIS: New Orleans (1.0 adults) and Madam Secretary (0.7 adults) all held steady on CBS. And, on NBC, Dateline earned a 0.6 rating before a presentation of Ride Along (0.7 adults).
