Ratings: ‘Quantico’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’ hold up against beastly NFL game

We have sympathy for any television program trying to compete on Sunday night. Thanks to some monster ratings for the Sunday Night Football showdown between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, every other show on the schedule had the potential to suffer.

This is why “Once Upon a Time” (1.6) and especially “Quantico” (1.6), which aired right in the middle of the game, should be feeling really good about themselves right now. Both of these shows held reasonably steady to where they were the week prior, and that helped to make ABC somewhat more respectable … as for why they haven’t just canceled “Blood & Oil” (0.9), we’re not sure since it is proving to be a major eyesore right in the middle of their lineup.

Most of the other shows in primetime were also damaged by the NFL. “Madam Secretary” (1.1) and “The Good Wife” (1.0) were each heavily hurt by the delay, and “The Simpsons” (1.6) was the only good performer for Fox. Granted, it also aired before the football game began.

There is one other show whose ratings we are very curious in seeing in “The Walking Dead,” which aired a new episode over on AMC. Unfortunately, the network will not have its ratings known until more than likely Tuesday. We’ll give you those as soon as we have them, plus a variety of other ratings for Monday’s primetime lineup. (We expect “The Big Bang Theory” to win.)