TV Ratings: Football Dominates

The new television season hasn’t begun yet, but the football season has, and it’s carrying the networks in the interim.

The Associated Press reports four NFL games finished among the Nielsen company’s top 12 shows last week, led by the Sunday night matchup of Philadelphia against Atlanta.

ABC devoted its entire prime-time lineup to the third Democratic presidential debate last Thursday, reaching a healthy audience of just under 13 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Between football and “America’s Got Talent,” NBC won the network ratings race. The network averaged 5.7 million viewers in prime time. ABC was second with 4.5 million, CBS had 3.9 million, Fox had 3.1 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Univision had 1.2 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 570,000.

⏩ Broadcast Prime-Time Top 20 for the week of Sept. 9-15:

1. NFL Football: Philadelphia at Atlanta, NBC, 17.64 million.
2. “NFL Post-Game,” Fox, 15.02 million.
3. NFL Football: Houston at New Orleans, ESPN, 13.53 million.
4. “Democratic Presidential Debate,” ABC, 12.95 million.
5. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 12.91 million.
6. “The OT,” Fox, 11.09 million.
7. NFL Football: Denver at Oakland, ESPN, 10.95 million.
8. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 9.48 million.
9. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 9.4 million.
10. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 8.46 million.

11. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.48 million.
12. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at Carolina, NFL Network, 6.67m.
13. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.69 million.
14. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 4.79 million.
15. “FBI,” CBS, 4.77 million.
16. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 4.64 million.
17. “Football Night in America, Part 2,” NBC, 4.6 million.
18. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 4.59 million.
19. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 4.58 million.
20. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 4.55 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers. The “NBC Nightly News” had 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5 million.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.42 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 1.89 million, MSNBC had 1.71 million, Hallmark had 1.38 million and HGTV had 1.32 million. HGTV’s heavily-promoted home renovation show with actors from “The Brady Bunch” reached 3.37 million for its premiere.

Sean Hannity’s 9/11 broadcast ranked the most-watched non-sports cable telecast for the week with 3.43 million total viewers.  Presentations of Hannity, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle and The Five made up 16 of the top 30 cable telecasts in total viewers.

⏩ Basic Cable Prime-Time Top Five:

1. ESPN (3,305,000)
2. Fox News (2,343,000)
3. MSNBC (1,465,000)
4. HGTV (1,369,000)
5. USA (1,083,000)