TV Ratings: CBS Wins Prime-Time Despite 'Roseanne'

The Nielsen company said Tuesday that viewership for the Rosanne's premiere shot up to 25 million people when delayed viewing for the three days after last Tuesday’s first showing is added. The increase of 6.6 million people sets a record for the biggest lift ever for a show in the three days after a premiere, Nielsen said

Discussion of the unusually strong “Roseanne” ratings tended to overshadow CBS’ ratings for “60 Minutes” two days earlier, where an interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels about her alleged affair with Trump before he became president reached 22.1 million viewers. Trump has denied her story.

According to the AP's David Bauder, unlike “Roseanne,” people weren’t likely to watch the Daniels interview if they didn’t see it live. Adding in people who watched during the three days after its initial airing, and the “60 Minutes” audience increased to just under 22.8 million. News programs generally have little delayed viewing compared to scripted entertainment, and the “60 Minutes” audience is among television’s oldest, and less accustomed to time shifting.

On a more modest note this week, NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live” drew 9.6 million viewers for the network’s most watched Easter in a dozen years.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 6.9 million viewers. ABC was second with 5.9 million viewers, NBC had 5.4 million, Fox had 2.6 million, Univision had 1.5 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 1 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.6 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.1 million.

The NCAA men’s Final Four led TBS to the top of the cable news prime-time rankings, with the network averaging 2.47 million viewers for the week. Fox News Channel had 2.03 million, MSNBC had 1.69 million, HGTV had 1.45 million and ESPN had 1.44 million.