Football scores from last night

Maybe it’s the new normal – at least for now. Five weeks into the season and still everyone’s standing – at least for now. Of course, last night being Thursday, the primetime trophy will be held by CBS and (4.8/15). With Peyton Manning now the NFL’s all-time touchdown pass leader as of October 19, it’s no wonder that last night’s impressive Denver Broncos victory over the San Diego Chargers was up from the week’s early numbers. In fact, on the last week before the network shifts back to non-football programming, CBS’ TNF experiment was really really up with its best result in six weeks and the second best since its September 11 debut.

Last night’s game, a 35-21 Broncos victory in Denver, surged 23% among adults 18-49 over last week’s fast nationals of 3.9/12. That October 16 game went up to a 5.4/17 in final numbers so expect a strong adjustment later today. As it stands, CBS took the night with a 4.5/14 rating and 14.64 million viewers.

On a night of otherwise ups and downs, the only other show on TV to see a similar demo jump as CBS’ NFL game was the CW’s Reign (0.5/1). Having gone up a tenth last week from the week before, the period drama leaped 25% this week to hit a Season 2 high. The same good fortune could ndot be said for Reign’s lead-in The Vampire Diaries (0.8/3), which stumbled 11% from last week to hit a season low in fast nationals.

NBC’s (1.0/3) didn’t have the best of nights either. In its fourth week, the struggling Kate Walsh comedy fell a hard 17% from its October 16 show to a fast nationals low. In fact, NBC saw a night of slips and stumbles with The Biggest Loser (1.2/4) and Parenthood (1.2/4) both dipping 8% from last week and newbie A To Z down 10%.

Fox’s only original of the night was (0.8/2). The remade Brit limited series has not had an easy time of it in Live+Same Day results. Last night’s result was even with its October 16 episode, so it can take solace in the fact it didn’t lose any ground.