Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin save Fox

Crossover classic, death of “Simpsons” character fuel Fox

After a week where many of Fox’s new and returning shows tanked, the network received some much-needed adrenaline shots from two reliable standbys.

The 26th season premiere of The Simpsons and the 14th season premiere of Family Guy – which featured a crossover episode between the two – scored their highest ratings in years.

Aided by a football overrun (9.0), Simpsons scored a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating, up a whopping 144 percent from what the series earned for its season finale in May. In addition to a “major” character dying in the season opener, the series was helped by the twelve-day marathon, which drew tons of viewers to FXX and rejuvenated interest in the long-running series.  In other words, The Simpsons are far from dead, even at age 26.

Fox followed with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which scored a series-high 2.6 rating, up 18 percent from what Bob’s Burgers earned in the slot last year.

But the night’s biggest standout was The Simpsons – real voices and all – appearing on Family Guy. The crossover earned a whopping 4.5 rating – the highest rated Family Guy in four years and was up 125 percent from last May’s season finale. The hour-long episode was Fox’s highest-rated entertainment show of the week and finished as the second highest-rated series of the week in the adult 18-49 demo, only behind The Big Bang Theory. Reviews of the crossover episode have mostly been positive; we may see another one of these down the road.

Meanwhile, ABC was no slouch either – the net scored with its Frozen-themed Once Upon A Time season premiere, finishing with a 3.4 demo rating and 10.2 million viewers, proving the Disney flick still has some punch. From there, it was all downhill with Resurrection earning a not-too shabby 2.5 rating and 8.4 million viewers, and Revenge scoring even lower, with a 1.5 rating, down nearly a full point from its lead-in.

CBS drew a lot of viewers to its Sunday lineup, but was unable to gain any traction demographically. A heavily hyped interview with President Obama on 60 Minutes drew 9.6 million viewers but only a 1.1 among adults 18-49. That was followed by Madam Secretary, which drew 12.7 million viewers, but only a 1.4 demo rating, still that’s up from its lead-in.

The Good Wife followed with a 1.3 rating (11.1 million viewers) and CSI posting an identical demo numbers, with 9.3 million viewers.

Last but not least, NBC dominated all comers with its Sunday Night Football matchup between the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys. Despite being a blowout victory by the Cowboys, the game earned a 8.7 rating and drew 22.6 million viewers.

All numbers are final; these are based on live plus same day figures.