TV Ratings: 'AGT', Football Score

The opening of college football’s season was welcome news for ABC in an otherwise quiet week for television, according to The Associated Press citing Nielsen data.

The network won the weekly ratings competition on the strength of games that took over the network’s schedule on Saturday night (Oregon vs. Auburn) and Sunday (Oklahoma vs. Houston), the Nielsen company said.

As it approaches its end for the season, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” otherwise dominated the prime-time landscape, with the week’s two most popular programs.

ABC averaged 3.7 million viewers in prime time for the week. NBC was second with 3.43 million viewers, CBS had 3.35 million, Fox had 1.5 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Univision had 1.03 million, Telemundo had 1.01 million and the CW had 580,000.

⏩ Broadcast Network Primetime For week of Aug. 26-Sept. 1:

1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 8.99 million
2. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 8 million 
3. College Football: Oregon vs. Auburn, ABC, 6.86 million 
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.24 million
5. College Football: Oklahoma vs. Houston, ABC, 5.44 million
6. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.11 million
7. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 4.87 million
8. “Bachelor in Paradise” (Monday), ABC, 4.59 million
9. “FBI,” CBS, 4.47 million
10.  “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 4.29 million

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.2 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 7.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.1 million.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.29 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.53 million, ESPN had 1.39 million, HGTV had 1.21 million and USA had 1.12 million.

As is traditionally the case during extreme weather events, The Weather Channel had a strong week on the ratings front, particular in the latter stages of the week, reports TVNewser.

For the week of Aug. 26, The Weather Channel averaged 675,000 total viewers during prime time (No. 16 across basic cable), and 569,000  total viewers across the 24-hour total day (No. 8 overall).

Basic cable ranker: Week of... by TVNewser on Scribd