ABC triumvirate powers network to Sunday win

LOS ANGELES—"Desperate Housewives," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and the new drama "Brothers & Sisters" added up to a nightly victory for ABC on Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The news was not nearly as good for the CW, which had a weak turnout for the debut of its 7-9 p.m. comedy block, anchored by 7 p.m.'s "Everybody Hates Chris," the trade publication added.
CBS' numbers were thrown off for the night by a football overrun that pushed back the start of primetime in East Coast markets by roughly a half-hour. Final national numbers for NBC's live football coverage won't be available until Tuesday, but there was no contest for the title of most-watched program of the night. That was claimed by ABC's 9 p.m. anchor "Housewives," which averaged 21.1 million viewers and an 8.5 rating/19 share in adults 18-49, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. (Last weekend, the suburban soap premiered with 24.1 million viewers.)
At 10 p.m., "Brothers & Sisters" (13.9 million, 5.5/14) lost 1.8 million viewers from last weekend. It appeared to be in a close race with NBC's football coverage for 18-49 demo glory. "Without a Trace" appeared to be slightly ahead of "Brothers" in total viewers for the second week in a row, with "Brothers" again showing some softness in its second half-hour.
The CW opened its Sunday block to fewer than 3 million viewers, starting from 7-8 p.m. with "Chris" (2.4 million, 0.9/3) and "All of Us" (2.3 million, 0.9/3). From 8-9 p.m., "Girlfriends" (2.7 million, 1.3/3) and "The Game" (2.6 million, 1.2/3) moved the network out of fractional demo territory at least.
ABC won the 8 p.m. hour with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (14.7 million, 5.7/15). Fox was wall-to-wall comedy repeats, highlighted by the regular 8 p.m. airing of "The Simpsons" (7.6 million, 3.6/10).
For the night, ABC led with 14.7 million viewers and a 5.6/14 in the key demo.—Agencies