RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: And now a story about a big TV turnaround. For the fourth week in a row, NBC is the most-watched network in primetime among younger viewers. For a decade, NBC sat at the bottom beneath rivals ABC, CBS and FOX. NPR's Sami Yenigun explains reasons for this surprising turnaround.</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: Back when "ER" graced the airways and "Will and Grace" pumped lifeblood into primetime, NBC was the network champ, says Bill Gorman of the website TV By the Numbers.</s>BILL GORMAN: NBC was at the top in 2002. The only place they could go was down, and they went down.</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: And they stayed down. They were, you could say...</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: ...but now NBC is back on top.</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: Partly because of their singing competition "The Voice," and...</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: ...Sunday Night Football.</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: Seriously. Sunday Night Football is now the priciest place for primetime ads. The audience that NBC is pulling is the audience that advertisers drool over: people between 18 and 49 years old.</s>BILL GORMAN: Once we get into the spring, they'll certainly fall behind CBS.</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: When the Sunday night lights go out, Bill Gorman says, NBC won't be able to compete. Their season could plunge like the rest of the major broadcast networks.</s>BILL GORMAN: ABC is down 11 percent. CBS is down 18 percent, and FOX is down 25 percent.</s>SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: With cable, YouTube, Hulu and pirate streams cutting into ratings every year, big broadcasters might just wish pigskin happened year-round. Sami Yenigun, NPR News.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: It's NPR News.
For years, NBC has struggled at the bottom of the pile of big broadcast networks, ratings-wise. However, this season it's on top, thanks in part to Sunday Night Football.