IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE Still Number 1 With Viewers

According to the Nielsen ratings for the past holiday weekend, NBC's airing of the classic Christmas movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was the number one show on Saturday night, bringing in an estimated 4.55 million viewers.  Second place in the same time slot was ABC's broadcast of 'The Sound of Music', another popular holiday film.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was released in 1946 and was directed by Frank Capra. The film starred James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore and told the story of an angel who helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.

NBC's Sunday Night Football also beat the competition over the weekend with it's broadcast of the NFC playoffs game.  The Green Bay Packers versus the Chicago Bears averaged 21 million viewers, making it the highest overnight rating for a game played on Christmas night since 1995.