September 16, 2012 ratings: It was a big night for football on NBC. Over on CBS, afternoon football led into 60 Minutes, Big Brother, and reruns. The other two networks had only encores.

On NBC, Football Night in America averaged a 4.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 11.8 million total viewers, from 7pm until 8:30pm. Then, at 8:30pm until 11pm, NFL Football drew an average of a 7.5 in the demo with 18.06 million.

On CBS, NFL Football drew a 6.3 demo rating with 18.73 million viewers at 7pm. As previously reported, the network has shifted the primetime schedule by 30 minutes on the evenings when football coverage runs past 7pm.

At 7:30pm, 60 Minutes attracted a 3.2 rating with 12.77 million viewers. That was followed at 8:30pm with Big Brother. The reality competition garnered a 2.3 rating (the same as last week’s) with 7.64 million.

These were followed by reruns of The Good Wife (0.9 in the demo with 4.26 million) and new timeslot occupant The Mentalist (0.7 rating with 3.86 million). The latter ran until 11:30pm.

On FOX, it was a night of animated reruns. A combination of football over-run and American Dad drew a 2.4 rating with 6.24 million. That was followed by The Cleveland Show (1.5 rating with 3.74 million), The Simpsons (1.9 rating and 4.28 million), another Simpsons at 8:30pm (1.9 in the demo with 4.10 million), Family Guy (2.0 demo rating with 4.41 million), and another Family Guy at 9:30pm (2.0 in the demo with 4.35 million).

And finally, on ABC, there were four hours of reruns. At 7pm, we had America’s Funniest Home Videos with 0.9 in the demo with 4.85 million. That was followed by three hours of Revenge — 0.6 and 3.10 million at 8pm, 0.6 rating with 3.06 million at 9pm, and 0.7 rating with 3.04 million at 10pm.

What do you think? How do you think The Mentalist will do on Sunday nights? What about Revenge? What were you watching last night?