TV Ratings: CBS Wins Week With Four Of Top Five Shows

Fired FBI acting director Andrew McCabe’s headline-making interview on CBS’ news magazine proved a TV audience grabber as well.

The program ranked as the third most-watched last week with 9.7 million people tuning in, according to The Associated Press citing Nielsen figures released Wednesday.

Viewership was down across the board during the Presidents Day holiday weekend, and the Sunday audience for “60 Minutes” didn’t approach its season average of 11.6 million. But McCabe’s memoir “The Threat,” about the FBI and the Trump administration, topped Amazon’s best-sellers list the day after the interview aired as part of a media blitz for the book.

CBS won the weekly network ratings contest as viewers also devoted time to the network’s “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory” and their spinoffs, Nielsen said.

With six of the top 10 shows and 13 of the most-watched 20, CBS had an average of 6.3 million weekly viewers. NBC had 5.2 million, ABC had 3.8 million, Fox had 3.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.3 million and the CW had 880,000.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most-watched cable network, averaging 2.5 million viewers in prime time. TNT had 2.3 million, MSNBC had 1.9 million, ESPN had 1.4 million, HGTV had 1.35 million and History had 1.3 million.

⏩Basic Cable Top 10 – Prime Time (Total Viewers)

1. Fox News (2,539,000)
2. TNT (1,967,000)
3. MSNBC (1,955,000)
4. ESPN (1,412,000)
5. HGTV (1,363,000)
6. History (1,236,000)
7. Hallmark (1,131,000)
8. Investigation Discovery (1,098,000)
9. USA (1,072,000)
10. CNN (1,023,000)

⏩Week of Feb 11-19 cable ranker... by on Scribd

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 8.8 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.7 million.

⏩Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Feb. 11-17:

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 13.4 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent Champions,” NBC, 10.5 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.7 million.
4. “FBI,” CBS, 9.5 million.
5. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 8.9 million.
6. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 8.7 million.
7. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8.5 million.
8. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 8.3 million.
9. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 7.9 million.
10. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.7 million.

11. “Mom,” CBS, 7.6 million.
12. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 7.5 million.
13. “This Is Us,” NBC, 7.4 million.
14. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 7.3 million.
15. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 7.19 million.
16. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 7.16 million.
17. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 7 million.
18. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.7 million.
19. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 6.6 million.
20. “MacGyver,” CBS, 6.4 million

Most of the top syndicated shows were hard-pressed to avoid declines amid decreasing TV usage in the session ending Feb. 10. Making matters worse were numerous preemptions in West Coast markets for the president’s State of the Union address on Feb. 5, reports TV Newscheck.

⏩TALK SHOWS

Dr. Phil 3.2 -3%
Ellen DeGeneres  2.4 -4%
Live with Kelly and Ryan  2.3 -8%
Maury 1.5 NC
Steve 1.4 NC

⏩COURT SHOWS

Judge Judy 7.9 NC
Hot Bench 2.6 NC
People’s Court 1.5 -6%
Judge Mathis 1.0 -9%
Divorce Court  0.7 -13%

⏩GAME SHOWS

Family Feud 6.7 NC
Wheel of Fortune 6.6 -7%
Jeopardy  6.6 -6%
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 1.6 -11%
Funny You Should Ask 0.5 NC

⏩MAGAZINE SHOWS

Entertainment Tonight 3.3 +3%
Inside Edition  3.2 -3%
TMZ 1.4 NC
Access  1.3 -7%
Extra  1.1 -8%

⏩OFF-NET SITCOMS

Big Bang Theory 4.9 NC
Last Man Standing  2.4 NC
Modern Family 2.0 NC
The Goldbergs  1.6 +7%
Two and a Half Men 1.5 NC