‘The Simpsons’ Season 32 Premiere Doubles Last Fall’s Debut in TV Ratings Thanks to NFL Lead-In
Sunday’s Season 32 premiere of “The Simpsons” was up 122% in TV ratings from the Fox animated series’ start last fall thanks to an NFL lead-in, according to initial Nielsen data.
The afternoon game, which was a showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks for the majority of markets, ended at 8 p.m. ET, cutting out an episode of post-game show “The OT” and going right into “The Simpsons” 32nd season opener, which scored a 2.0 rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic.
Last year, the long-running cartoon premiered Sept. 29, without an NFL lead-in, to a 0.9 rating To show you just how much that NFL lead-in really helps, a week later, the second episode of Season 31 earned a 2.1 rating with spillover from a game.
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Meanwhile, “Sunday Night Football” on NBC was still primetime’s highest-rated show.
Due to the nature of live sports, the below numbers for NBC and Fox are subject to significant adjustment when final data comes in later today.
NBC was first in ratings with a 3.5 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 12.2 million, according to preliminary numbers.
Fox was second in ratings with a 2.3 and in viewers with 7 million.
More to come…
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