TV Ratings: Top 6 All Football Shows

The impeachment drama surrounding President Donald Trump, or at least various spins on it, is a compelling television draw, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen data.

Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN collectively averaged just under 5.4 million viewers in prime time last week, the Nielsen company said. It was a week dominated by the news of the House Judiciary Committee’s vote to impeach Trump.

That puts the news on par with the NBC, Fox and CBS entertainment networks, which each averaged between 5.4 and 5.9 million viewers last week.  Thirty-four of the 40 most-watched cable programs last week were news shows, the bulk of them on Fox News Channel.

Fox was second with an average of 5.5 million viewers, Nielsen said. CBS had 5.4 million, ABC had 3.1 million, ION Television had 1.2 million, Univision had 1.1 million, the CW had 940,000 and Telemundo had 860,000.

⏩ Broadcast Prime Time shows (Total Viewers):

1. NFL Football: Buffalo at Pittsburgh, NBC, 18.14 million.
2. “NFL Pregame Show,” NBC, 13.45 million.
3. “The OT,” Fox, 12.14 million.
4. NFL Football: N.Y. Jets at Baltimore, Fox, 12.14 million.
5. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia, ESPN, 11.8 million.
6. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 9.4 million.
7. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 8.32 million.
8. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 8.23 million.
9. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 8.21 million.
10. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.05 million.

11. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.48 million.
12. “NFL Pregame Show,” Fox, 7.3 million.
13. “Kennedy Center Honors,” 6.92 million.
14. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 6.9 million.
15. “Ellen’s Great Giveaway” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.85 million.
16. “Survivor,” CBS, 6.82 million.
17. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 6.57 million.
18. “Mom,” CBS, 6.25 million.
19. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 6.14 million.
20. “Magnum, P.I., CBS, 6.12 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.6 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.8 million viewers.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.96 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.39 million, Hallmark had 1.66 million, MSNBC had 1.55 million and A&E had 1.06 million.

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

1. Fox News (3,048,000)
2. ESPN (2,438,000)
3. Hallmark Channel (1,633,000)
4. MSNBC (1,598,000)
5. A&E (1,078,000)
6. HGTV (964,000)
7. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
8. Discovery (910,000)
9. Freeform (905,000)
10. History (905,000)

⏩ Basic cable ranker (Total Viewers):

⏩ Syndication:

After being nudged out of the top spot in talk in the prior week — for the first time in more than three years — Dr. Phil came roaring back in the session ending Dec. 8.

TV Newser reports Phil skyrocketed 25% to a 2.5 live-plus-same-day national Nielsen rating, its second biggest number of the season, and finished among the talkers for the 169th time in the last 170 weeks.

Live with Kelly and Ryan was rock solid, holding its season-high 2.1 for a sixth straight week and tying Ellen DeGeneres for second place. Ellen rose 5% to a new season-high 2.1.

Far ahead of the daytime field, Judge Judy presided with a top-rated 6.7, easily overwhelming all shows in syndication for the 18th time in the past 19 weeks, and was the only courtroom up from last year, growing 2%.