Wednesday, December 19, 2018

TV Ratings: Football Dominates Top 10

Professional football illustrated its dominance in the ratings this past week, reports the Associated Press citing the latest Nielsen data.

Four NFL games finished among the Nielsen company’s 20 most popular prime-time programs, with NBC’s Sunday night and Fox’s Thursday contests the top two. Both games featured Los Angeles teams.

Add in three pre-game shows, and football accounted for seven of Nielsen’s entries.

The games usually dwarf regular programming. For example, Fox drew 17.4 million to its Thursday night game. Its next most popular show, “Last Man Standing,” had 12 million fewer viewers.

Similarly, the 18.1 million people who watched NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” were nearly 10 million more than “The Voice.” CBS’ lineup has a broader base of support and no pro football in prime-time, but it should be noted that its highest-rated show, “60 Minutes,” comes on after football on the East Coast.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 7.2 million viewers. NBC had 6.2 million viewers, Fox had 5.1 million, ABC had 3.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, the CW had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 1.1 million.

ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.4 million people in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.04 million, Hallmark had 2.02 million, MSNBC had 1.91 million and USA had 1.31 million.

The Rachel Maddow Show was the No. 1 cable news program for the week, averaging 3.06 million total viewers and 590,000 A25-54 viewers from Monday – Friday. With Maddow in the chair (Monday – Thursday), the broadcast averaged 3.24 million total viewers and 625,750 A25-54 viewers. Joy Reid sat in for Maddow on Friday. Sean Hannity finished in second place across the board. Similar to Maddow, Hannity was off on Friday.

Basic Cable Top 10 – Prime Time
  1. ESPN (2,466,000)
  2. Fox News (2,093,000)
  3. Hallmark Channel (2,036,000)
  4. MSNBC (1,970,000)
  5. NFL Network (1,550,000)
  6. USA (1,261,000)
  7. CNN (1,083,000)
  8. HGTV (1,070,000)
  9. A&E (1,039,000)
  10. Investigation Discovery (1,028,000)


ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 8.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.4 million

Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 10-16. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. NFL Football: Philadelphia at L.A. Rams, NBC, 18.12 million.
2. NFL Football: L.A. Chargers at Kansas City, Fox, 17.41 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 14.55 million.
4. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.28 million.
5. “NFL Pregame,” NBC, 11.66 million.
6. NFL Football: Minnesota at Seattle, ESPN, 11.63 million.
7. “NFL Pregame,” Fox, 10.34 million.
8. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 9.22 million.
9. “FBI,” CBS, 9.04 million.
10. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 8.97 million.

11. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 8.53 million.
12. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 8.43 million.
13. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 8.08 million.
14. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.78 million.
15. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 7.76 million.
16. “Mom,” CBS, 7.71 million.
17. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.7 million.
18. “Bull,” CBS, 7.4 million.
19. NFL Football: Cleveland at Denver, NFL Network, 7.29 million.
20. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 7.21 million.

The week’s top-rated daytime talk shows in the women 25-54 demo were:
  1. Dr. Phil (1.1, -8% from the week before)
  2. Ellen DeGeneres (1.0, -9%), tied with Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.0, unchanged)
  3. Maury (0.8, -11%)
  4. Wendy Williams (0.7 -13%)
  5. Steve (0.6, unchanged), tied with Steve Wilkos (0.6, -14%)

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