Strong Sunday season opening for CBS

NEW YORK (AP) — It's still unclear whether television viewers will accept actress Tea Leoni as a fictional secretary of state. But they're at least willing to give the idea a try.

The Nielsen company said Tuesday that Leoni's series, "Madam Secretary" debuted before just under 15 million viewers on Sunday night.

All of CBS' Sunday premieres did well, helped by a late NFL telecast matching last year's Super Bowl teams, Seattle and Denver.

Fox's Tuesday night comedies started very slowly, but Monday's premiere of the "Batman" prequel "Gotham" had a hearty showing for the struggling network.