NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Reruns and sports top last week’s viewing

NEW YORK

Football and reruns prevailed on television Christmas week, according to the Nielsen ratings company.

NBC’s Sunday night clash between the New York Giants and the Minnesota Vikings claimed the lead with almost 18 million viewers.

But CBS was not to be outdone with its slate of encore dramas and comedies (a trio of repeats of “The Big Bang Theory” made it into the Top 20), along with such popular holiday fare as an Andy Griffith special and a colorized hour of classic “I Love Lucy.” For the week, CBS led in prime time with an average 5.7 million viewers.

Not so successful: ABC’s four-episode block of “Muppets” reruns on Sunday, the first of which drew a puny 1.9 million viewers, and the final half-hour attracting a Scrooge-like 955,000.

NBC, in second place for the week, averaged 5.3 million viewers, while ABC had 3.6 million, Fox had 3.1 million, Univision had 1.7 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, and the CW had 1.1 million.

Associated Press