But did Downton Abbey cover the spread? The PBS series finished second to Super Bowl XLVI among TV viewers.
The Emmy-winning program attracted 4 million viewers at 9 o'clock Sunday, outpacing reruns of CBS' CSI Miami (3.13 million), Fox's animated tandem of Family Guy (2.41 million) and American Dad! (2.29 million) and ABC's The Middle (1.76 million) as the broadcast networks virtually forfeited the night. Those were paltry numbers for those shows, while Downton Abbey wasn't off by much (its first three episode averaged 4.3 million and the fourth 4.8 million before Sunday's 4 million).
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Maybe because it qualifies as fantasy fare in the Great Recession, Undercover Boss grabbed its biggest audience since January 2011, according to Nielsen overnights. Meanwhile, the implosion of Kim Kardashian's marriage to Kris Humphries set series records for E!.
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No terra firma for The Firm. Its two-hour debut stands on this shaky ground — 46 percent below the demo rating of The Cape's premiere a year ago, making it the worst all-time start of an NBC regular season drama. Quite telling: the show lost viewers with each succeeding half-hour. Surely, the network is missing Sunday Night Football already.
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The 2011 American Music Awards entertained 12.04 million fans — a 3 percent increase over last year — and posted a 4.3 rating in the 18-to-49 demographic, according to preliminary Nielsen overnights.
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Pan Am increased its viewership to 5.68 million Sunday night, up some 10 percent from last week's series low, Nielsen overnights show.
It's a long way for the ABC series (which also rose slightly to a 1.8 rating among the 18-to-49 set) from the 10.87 million to which it premiered. ...
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