CBS Delaying All Sunday Night Shows 30 Minutes Due to NFL Football

CBS' entire programming slate will be set back half an hour on Sunday night to make room for [...]

By Michael Hein

CBS' entire programming slate will be set back half an hour on Sunday night to make room for football.

The NFL is taking over CBS on Sunday, to the dismay of TV fans. For those that do not watch sports, CBS will be a no fly zone until 7:30 p.m. ET, as the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos battle it out for supremacy.

The game is expected to come to a close by 7:30, at which time CBS' flagship Sunday night program 60 Minutes will pick up just 30 minutes behind schedule. On tonight's episode, reporters will take a look at President Trump's immigration policy and family separation, including emotional footage a family reuniting with their daughter after 4 months.

The show will also look at a new robotics program allowing scientists to explore the site of the Fukishima nuclear meltdown in Japan, and a new Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch. The book was adapted for stage by Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter behind The West Wing and, more recently, The Newsroom, which starred Daniels as well.

After that, the usual shows will all be set back by half an hour as well. A new episode of God Friended Me begins at 8:30 p.m. ET, followed by a new episode of NCIS: Los Angeles an hour later. CBS will close out the night with a new episode of Madam Secretary at 10:30 p.m. ET.

The disruption may still be worth it for CBS, as the NFL's ratings are in a steady incline once again. Football broadcasts had been taking a hit for the last couple of years, and many experts believed it had to do with the stories of brain damage amongst players coupled with the controversial protests led by Colin Kaepernick.

According to a new report by CNN Money, those days may be behind the NFL. On Thanksgiving, ratings were up on all three of its holiday games, with CBS' broadcast rising 11% from last year. The sport still has yet to regain all of its ground, however, as last year's matches were reportedly down an average of 19% from the year before that.

CNN's analysts chalked the success up to good old fashioned exciting sports. Regardless of protests or bad press, fans tuned in because the NFL's games were nail-biters. High, close scores drove viewership in a way that advertisers loved, meaning that the people behind these telecasts can take all the extra half hours they need from network programming.

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