NFL rules Sunday nights

From 2006 to '08 - back in the heyday of "Desperate Housewives" - NBC's "Sunday Night Football" was the highest-rated prime time show of the night on 33 of 48 occasions.

From 2009 to '11, SNF has been No. 1 for its night every week but one.

The exception was Oct. 25, 2009, when the Yankees faced the Angels in Game 6 of the ALCS - which had been delayed one night by rain - and edged the national rating for that night's Cardinals-Giants game on NBC.

The football game would have won nationally if not for the fact it was blown out of the water in New York, the nation's largest TV market.

In New York, baseball averaged 26.9 percent of homes compared to 9.3 for football.