Cowboys-Giants set record high for Sunday Night Football while Emmys escape record low

Dagnabbit, we lost the dadgummed game: Perturbed Cowboys coach Wade Phillips and happier Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris Sunday.
By ED BARK
The New York Giants last second win over the Dallas Cowboys set a national ratings record for NBC's Sunday Night Football.

Averaging 24.8 million viewers, it also was the most-watched prime-time regular season NFL game since the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers drew 27 million viewers on Dec. 15, 1997.

The season opener in Jerry's Palace supplants last season's Dec. 14th Cowboys-Giants game, which had 23.1 million viewers on Sunday Night Football. The Cowboys also were involved in the fourth most-watched SNF game, when 22.2 million watched them beat the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 21st of last year.

Caught in the pincers of Cowboys-Giants, CBS' competing telecast of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards managed 13.47 million viewers. That's an uptick over last fall's 12.34 million viewers, making Sunday's telecast the fourth least-watched of all time. The 1990 Emmys on Fox still hold the record with 12.3 million viewers.

Emmy had its biggest audience in 1986, when 35.8 million watched NBC's presentation.