NBC's Globes ratings in line with last year

It's tough to get a true read on the ratings for Sunday night's telecast of the Golden Globe Awards on NBC, but early indications are that it will come in a sliver behind last year's solid showing. Football fueled Fox to big numbers for its animated comedies, which included strong sampling for ''Napoleon Dynamite.''Preliminary national estimates from Nielsen for the Globes don't tell the whole story , they include only the 8 p.m. replays in the West and not the live 5 p.m. showings , but NBC's stations averaged a 4.2 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 14 million viewers overall from 8 to 11. By comparison, a year ago the kudocast did a 4.4 demo rating and 14.3 million viewers.When more reliable data is available later Monday, it's expected that this year's show, hosted again by Ricky Gervais, will be on par or slightly below last year's averages of a 5.2 rating in 18-49 and 17 million viewers overall. In time zone-adjusted, local-market scores, the Golden Globes did an 11.7 household rating/18 share in the overnights this year , off a tick from last year's 11.8/18.NBC is expected to finish second to Fox in 18-49 for the 8 o'clock hour and first from 9 to 11.At Fox, the conclusion of the NFL playoff game between the NY Giants and Green Bay Packers funneled a massive audience into the net's animated comedies. ''The Simpsons'' averaged roughly a 6.8 rating/16 share in adults 18-49 and 15.7 million viewers overall, and the series premiere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' followed with a strong 4.6/11 in the demo and 9.5 million viewers. ''Family Guy'' was also well above average at 9 o'clock (4.4/10 in 18-49, 8.5 million viewers overall), and a second ''Napoleon'' at 9:30 did a solid 3.6/8 in 18-49 and 7.2 million viewers overall.ABC edged past CBS for the night in 18-49, starting slowly with ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' (1.2/3 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall opposite football) before picking up nicely with ''Once Upon a Time'' (3.3/8 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall), which was down about 10% from last week. Also down were 9-11 p.m. dramas ''Desperate Housewives'' (2.7/6 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall) and ''Pan Am'' (1.3/3 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall).At CBS, ''60 Minutes'' (1.6/4 in 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall opposite football) was followed by a nice start to the season for ''Undercover Boss'' (3.0/7 in 18-49, 11.6 million viewers overall), which will be moving to Fridays next month to make room for ''The Amazing Race.'' The net dropped off the rest of the way with original dramas ''The Good Wife'' (1.9/4 in 18-49, 9.3 million viewers overall) and ''CSI: Miami'' (1.3/3 in 18-49, 7.1 million viewers overall).Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 8.0/19; NBC, 3.6/9; ABC, 2.1/5; CBS, 2.0/5; Univision, 1.0/2.In total viewers: Fox, 20.2 million; NBC, 12.3 million; CBS, 9.2 million; ABC, 6.7 million; Univision, 2.6 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com