TV Ratings: '60 Minutes' Paces CBS To A Win

CBS won the television ratings crown last week despite being without the most valuable ratings commodity in this era, a prime-time football game, according to The Associated Press citing Nielsen data.

Two relatively lackluster games on NBC and Fox last week enabled CBS’ strong entertainment schedule to rule the week, the Nielsen company said. The long-running “60 Minutes” newsmagazine was CBS’ top-rated program.

The week’s best prime-time football game was the “Monday Night Football” matchup between Seattle and San Francisco on ESPN, making it the rare week where a program on cable was the most-watched television show.

CBS averaged 5.2 million viewers last week. NBC had 4.7 million viewers, ABC had 4.3 million, Fox had 3.5 million, Univision had 1.1 million, ION Television had 1 million, Telemundo had 850,000 and the CW had 610,000.

⏩ Broadcast Prime-time Top 20 (Total Viewers):

1. NFL Football: Seattle at San Francisco, ESPN, 16.95 million.
2. NFL Football: Chicago at L.A. Rams, NBC, 16.85 million.
3. NFL Football: Pittsburgh at Cleveland, Fox, 15.66 million.
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 13.2 million.
5. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 12.2 million.
6. “NCIS,” CBS, 11.66 million.
7. “CMA Awards,” ABC, 11.28 million.
8. “NFL Pregame Show,” Fox, 9.64 million.
9. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 9.47 million.
10. “Young Sheldon, CBS, 9.06 million.

11. “FBI,” CBS, 8.88 million.
12. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 8.51 million.
13. “NFL Pregame Show,” ESPN, 8.06 million.
14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.6 million.
15. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 7.51 million.
16. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.44 million.
17. “Hawaii Five-O,′ CBS, 7.36 million.
18. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.18 million.
19. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 7.15 million.
20. “This is Us,” NBC, 7.12 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.1 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 8.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6 million viewers. For the third consecutive week, the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell delivered its largest average audience since March, before O’Donnell joined the newscast,

ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 3.17 million viewers in prime time. In a strong news week, Fox News Channel averaged 2.75 million viewers and MSNBC had 1.96 million. Hallmark had 1.65 million viewers and HGTV had 1.04 million.

⏩  Basic Cable Prime Time (Total Viewers)

1. ESPN (3,188,000)
2. Fox News (2,832,000)
3. MSNBC (2,007,000)
4. Hallmark Channel (1,602,000)
5. HGTV (1,049,000)
6. CNN (1,023,000)
7. A&E (941,000)
8. TBS (882,000)
9. History (878,000)
10. Discovery (871,000)