The 17.4 million people who watched the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" , featuring interviews with Trump and Democratic opponent Joe Biden, was the show’s biggest audience in more than two years, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen data. This was despite an angry president releasing an unedited version of his talk with Lesley Stahl on Facebook three days in advance because he didn’t like the questions.
Since “60 Minutes” had been averaging 10.3 million viewers so far this season, clearly some people wanted to see the broadcast after hearing about the controversy, or saw the full tape and were curious about how CBS edited it.
Stahl made one reference to the dispute in her introduction, saying “we had prepared to talk about the many issues and questions facing the president, but in what has become an all-too-public dust-up, the conversation was cut short.”
It was the biggest “60 Minutes” audience since March 25, 2018, another episode that Trump surely didn’t want people to see since it featured an interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels. She alleged she had an affair with Trump, who denied it.
With the election near, Nielsen had more superlatives for cable news. Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson recorded the most-watched month ever for a cable news program. October has also represented the most-watched month in prime time for both CNN and MSNBC.
NEW RATINGS RECORD: Tucker Carlson Tonight has achieved a new record in October by posting the most-watched month of any program in the history of cable news. A huge 5.3million viewers tuned into his show during the 8pm hour throughout the month. pic.twitter.com/thZP7cakOc
— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) October 27, 2020
Behind the World Series, Fox was the most popular broadcast network in prime time, averaging 8.2 million viewers. NBC had 5.8 million viewers, ABC had 4.6 million, CBS had 4.4 million, Ion Television had 1.2 million, Univision had 1.1 million, Telemundo had 1 million and the CW had 620,000.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks, averaging 5.16 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 2.65 million, CNN had 2.4 million, ESPN had 2.14 million and Hallmark had 1.19 million.
According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, the network had its highest-rated September in network history last month, and will complete October having averaged the largest audience for a month in cable history, 4.9 million total viewers.
The network also delivered the second highest-rated total day viewership in the history of cable news (2.3 million viewers), coming only behind its own coverage of the Iraq War in April 2003.
In addition to setting network records, Fox News was the most-watched network on cable television, both in total day and in prime time, reports TV Newser.
➤Top 20 Prime-Time Shows (Total Viewers):
1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 17.4 million.
2. “Presidential Debate,” Fox News, 15.47 million.
3. NFL Football: Seattle at Arizona, NBC, 14.31 million.
4. “Debate Analysis,” Fox News, 12.19 million.
5. NFL Football: Arizona at Dallas, ESPN, 11.83 million.
6. “Debate Preview,” Fox News, 11.33 million.
7. “Presidential Debate,” ABC, 11.25 million
8. “NFL Post-Game” (Sunday), Fox, 10.91 million.
10. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia, Fox, 10.47 million.
11. World Series, Game 5: L.A. Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay, 10.06 million.
12. World Series, Game 4: L.A. Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay, 9.33 million.
13. World Series, Game 1: Tampa Bay vs. L.A. Dodgers, 9.27 million.
14. World Series, Game 2: Tampa Bay vs. L.A. Dodgers, 9.11 million.
15. “NFL Pre-Game,” NBC, 8.88 million.
16. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 8.21 million.
17. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Thursday), Fox News, 8.17 million.
18. World Series, Game 3: L.A. Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay, Fox, 8.16 million.
19. “NFL Pre-Game,” Fox, 8.13 million.
20. “NFL Post-Game” (Monday), Fox, 8.09 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.6 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.2 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million.
SYNDICATION: Shrugging off a bevy of large-market preemptions that stymied much of daytime, popular sophomore Kelly Clarkson was the only talk show in the plus column for the session ending Oct. 18, surging 13% from the week before to a 0.9 live-plus-same-day national Nielsen rating.
Clarkson rose 25% in the key women 25-54 demo despite being one of several strips blown out in some major markets on four days during the frame for coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
In prime access time periods, Family Feud added 4% to a 5.5 to lead the game shows and all of syndication. Jeopardy recovered 9% to a 5.0, and Wheel of Fortune accelerated 7% to a 4.8, according to TV Newscheck.
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