Football hurls NBC to top spot in weekly ratings

NBC got a bit of good news last week as sports propelled the long-struggling network to first place during an otherwise quiet holiday period.

The network had the most-watched program for the week ending Jan. 4 with Saturday's NFL playoff game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers. The match-up averaged a hefty 27.8 million total viewers, according to figures published today by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC also saw some decent numbers from a special Sunday preview of its new series "Superstars of Dance," which averaged 10.6 million.

Fox also benefited from the typical holiday sporting contests, including Friday's Sugar Bowl (13.4 million) and Thursday's Orange Bowl (9.3 million).

Otherwise, the week was mostly given over to repeats and scattered holiday specials. ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve '09" (8.6 million) easily dispatched NBC's "New Year's Eve With Carson Daly" (3.9 million).

Overall, NBC averaged 9.4 million viewers, trailed by Fox (8.7 million), CBS (8.4 million) and ABC (6.5 million).

On basic cable, college football ruled, with the No. 1 spot taken by ESPN's Tuesday game between Oklahoma State and Oregon (6.2 million).

— Scott Collins