TV Ratings: AGT Wins For NBC

CBS chose the middle of the summer for Norah O’Donnell to debut as “CBS Evening News” anchor, so probably should not be surprised that not too many people noticed.

According to The Associated Press, Nielsen company reports that 5.24 million people watched her newscast each day on average last week. That’s essentially unchanged from the week before, when Jim Axelrod was the substitute host and CBS was also a distant third in the ratings behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “Nightly News.”

CBS News President Susan Zirinsky said the focus is on delivering journalism that impacts viewers, and pointed to interviews last week with top military commanders in the Middle East and O’Donnell’s reporting from the Texas-Mexico border. She also anchored from Florida on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch.

No matter how you look at the numbers, O’Donnell has her work cut out for her. ABC’s “World News Tonight” averaged 7.9 million viewers last week and the “NBC Nightly News” had 6.9 million viewers.

Behind the dominant “America’s Got Talent,” NBC won the week in prime time, averaging 3.4 million viewers. ABC had 3.2 million, CBS had 2.9 million, Fox had 1.8 million, ION Television had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.2 million, Univision had 1.1 million and the CW had 670,000.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.48 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.61 million, HGTV had 1.26 million, Hallmark had 1.19 million and TBS had 1.13 million.

⏩ Cable TV Prime-time:

1. Fox News Channel (2,550,000)
2. MSNBC (1,657,000)
3. HGTV (1,278,000)
4. Hallmark Channel (1,198,000)
5. TBS (1,105,000)
6. TLC (1,091,000)
7. USA (1,043,000)
8. History (976,000)
9. A&E (944,000)
10. Investigation Discovery (934,000)

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

⏩ Broadcast Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 15-21:

1. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 9.54 million.
2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.58 million.
3. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.48 million.
4. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 5.52 million.
5. “Bring the Funny,” NBC, 4.72 million.
6. “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 4.64 million.
7. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 4.54 million.
8. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 4.27 million.
9. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.16 million.
10. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.03 million.

11. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 4.01 million.
12. “Lion King: Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” ABC, 4 million.
13. “Press Your Luck,” ABC, 3.9 million.
14. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 3.81 million.
15. “Dateline NBC” (Monday), NBC, 3.75 million.
16. “Hannity” (Wednesday), Fox News, 3.69 million.
17. “To Tell the Truth,” ABC, 3.57 million.
18. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 3.49 million.
19. “Bull,” CBS, 3.41 million.
20. “Hannity” (Thursday), Fox News, 3.35 million.