TV Ratings: MLB Off To Strong Start

ESPN’s coverage of the first game back, between the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals last Thursday, was the most-watched regular season baseball game in nine years, The Associated Press reports citing Nielsen company data.

Weekend ratings were also solid. But considering that Major League Baseball on Tuesday temporarily suspended the Miami Marlins’ season for the rest of the week because of their COVID-19 outbreak, there are fresh fears that the season will not be completed.

Fox’s Saturday night coverage of Washington’s win over the Yankees reached 2.8 million, or 19% over the average for all of its’ prime-time games last year.

ESPN’s weekend slate of games, taken as a whole, were up 70% percent in audience over weekend games last year, Nielsen said.

News programming continued to dominate prime time last week, led by a CBS rerun of “60 Minutes.”

CBS led all broadcast networks with an average of 3.1 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 2.8 million, ABC had 2.2 million, Fox had 1.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo average 880,000.

⏩ Top 20 most popular prime-time programs (Toal Viewers):

1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.52 million.
2. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.36 million.
3. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 5.08 million.
4. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 4.44 million.
5. “Hannity” (Thursday), Fox News, 4.35 million.
6. “Hannity” (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.29 million.
7. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.24m.
8. “Hannity” (Tuesday), Fox News, 4.17 million.
9. “FBI,” CBS, 4.12 million.
10. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 4.113 million.

11. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Tuesday), Fox News, 4.105 million.
12. ML Baseball: N.Y. Yankees at Washington, ESPN, 4.08m.
13. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.05 million.
14. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Thursday), Fox News, 4.023m.
15. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Monday), Fox News, 4.022 million.
16. “Hannity” (Monday), Fox News, 3.9 million.
17. “Titan Games,” NBC, 3.82 million.
18. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 3.78 million.
19. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 3.77 million.
20. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, 3.68 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening newscasts with an average of 8.8 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.6 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million.

For the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks, ABC News’ “World News Tonight with David Muir” is the #1 program on all broadcast and cable television in the U.S. in both Total Viewers (8.822 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.712 million) for the week of July 20, 2020,  based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.  In fact, “World News Tonight” is the top program in America for the 8th week in a row among Total Viewers.

Fox News Channel led the cable networks, averaging 3.05 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 2.04 million, CNN had 1.36 million, HGTV had 1.3 million and TLC had 1.29 million.

From TVNewser, For the month of July:

• Add another one to the list: Fox News is completing its most-watched month of July ever, and marked the 7th consecutive month this year as the most-watched cable network in prime time (3.22 million). The network also marked 49 months in a row as the most-watched cable network in total day viewers, averaging 1.63 million across 6 a.m.-6 a.m. daypart. Compared with its July 2019 ratings, Fox News was +32% in total prime time viewers, +38% in the prime time demo, +18% in total day viewers and +16% in total day demo.
• In July 2020, MSNBC was successfully able to maintain its status as the second-most-watched network on basic cable, averaging an impressive 2.1 million viewers in prime time, and 1.2 million in total day. MSNBC managed to post +1% growth in total prime time audience, but -1% in total day viewers. The network continues to lose Adults 25-54, -7% in the prime time demo and -9% in the total day demo. MSNBC finished behind both Fox News and CNN in the advertiser-friendly category this past month.
• CNN is completing its most-watched July in the network’s 40-year history in total day (994,000) and its second-most-watched July in prime time (1.51 million), trailing only July of 2016. The network is touting its performance among Adults 25-54, and understandably so. It beat MSNBC in prime time for the 5th straight month and in total day for the 8th straight month among Adults 25-54, and CNN was the No. 1 basic cable network among Adults 25-54 in July during the dayside daypart in all of cable for the 4th month in a row in the demo. CNN defines dayside as 9 a.m.-4 p.m., whereas other networks define it as 9 a.m.-5 p.m.