TV Ratings: '60 Minutes' Tops for The Week

A contentious interview with White House adviser Peter Navarro over the administration’s response to the coronavirus helped “60 Minutes” earn the top spot in the ratings for the third time this season, The Associated Press reports citing Nielsen data..

Numbers for the top shows that surged in the first weeks that viewers stayed home because of the coronavirus outbreak appear to have leveled off to pre-pandemic levels.

Major surges in viewers came for a pair of long-running ABC shows, with “Modern Family” airing its series finale after 11 seasons and “Grey’s Anatomy” having its 16th season finale, but neither managed to crack the top 10 as both often did in their primes.

CBS was again the most popular network in prime time last week, averaging 5.83 million viewers, down from 6.7 million viewers the previous week. ABC and NBC each had 4.57 million, Fox had 2.57 million, Univision had 1.58 million, ION Television had 1.26 million and Telemundo had 990,000.

⏩ Top 20 Broadcast TV Shows (Total Viewers):

1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.68 million.
2. “The Voice,” NBC, 9.6 million.
3. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 9.05 million.
4. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8.97 million.
5. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 7.94 million.
6. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.862 million.
7. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.858 million.
8. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 7.67 million.
9. “Station 19,” ABC, 7.56 million.
10. “Magnum P.I.,” CBS, 7.4 million.

11. “Modern Family,” ABC, 7.37 million.
12. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 7.34 million.
13. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 7.23 million.
14. “Bull,” CBS, 7.16 million.
15. “FBI,” CBS, 6.96 million.
16. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.77 million.
17. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.75 million.
18. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 6.73 million.
19. “A Modern Farewell,” ABC, 6.64 million.
20. “MacGyver,” CBS, 6.38 million.

The coronavirus pandemic was apparently still drawing big audiences for evening network newscasts. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was the leader with an average of 14 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 12 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 8 million, Nielsen said.

ABC News reports “World News Tonight” was the top program in America for the 5th time in the last 6 weeks.  In fact, “World News Tonight” claimed each of the Top 5 telecasts of the week in all of broadcast and cable television in Total Viewers with Monday (11.700 million), Wednesday (11.464 million), Thursday (11.357 million), Tuesday (11.225 million) and Friday (11.040 million), respectively.

Fox News Channel was again the most-watched cable network, averaging 3.46 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.94 million, CNN had 1.82 million, The History Channel had 1.19 million and TLC had 1.18 million.

⏩ Top 5 Basic Cable Top 5 – Prime-time (Total Viewers):

1. Fox News (3,547,000)
2. MSNBC (1,986,000)
3. CNN (1,848,000)
4. HGTV (1,199,000)
5. TLC (1,146,000)

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