TV Ratings: ’60 Minutes’ Leads Quiet Week

Led by the reliable “60 Minutes” on CBS, news programming dominated the television rankings on a quiet week in mid-August, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen stats.

Nine of the 20 most popular programs were news or commentary shows, eight of them on Fox News Channel, the Nielsen company said.

CBS was the most popular broadcast network in prime time, averaging 3.2 million viewers. NBC had 2.8 million, ABC had 2.4 million, Fox had 1.5 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 1 million.

The Top 20 Prime-Time programs (Total Viewers):

1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.75 million.
3. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 6.15 million.
4. “NCIS,” CBS, 4.73 million.
5. “Hannity” (Tuesday), Fox News, 4.59 million.
6. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Monday), Fox News, 4.55 million.
7. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.45 million.
8. “Hannity” (Monday), Fox News, 4.39 million.
9. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Thursday), 4.28 million.
10. “Hannity” (Thursday), 4.22 million.

11. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Wednesday), 4.15 million.
12. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 4.12 million.
13. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Tuesday), 4.11 million.
14. “World of Dance” (Wednesday), NBC, 4.08 million.
15. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 4.04 million.
16. “Hannity” (Wednesday), Fox News, 3.91 million.
17. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 3.91 million.
18. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 3.86 million.
19. “FBI,” CBS, 3.83 million.
20. “World of Dance” (Tuesday), NBC, 3.77 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.5 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.3 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million.

Fox News Channel led the cable networks with an average of 3.29 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 2.04 million, HGTV had 1.4 million, CNN had 1.34 million and TLC had 1.3 million.