TV Ratings: 'The Bachelor' Drama Helped The Numbers

 

Chris Harrison

ABC “The Bachelor” ended a season that had as much drama off the set as on with its most-watched episode of the year and final appearance of host Chris Harrison — at least for a while.

The pre-taped season finale with Harrison reached 6.1 million viewers last Monday and the “After the Final Rose” special, hosted by Emmanuel Acho, was seen by 5.67 million, the Associated Press reports citing Nielsen data.

Harrison was criticized last month for defending a contestant after she was seen in racially-insensitive pictures attending a plantation-themed ball in 2018. Harrison later apologized but it was announced he would be stepping away from the show for an undetermined period.

It’s not clear whether he will be back. Former bachelorettes Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe will host the upcoming season of “The Bachelorette.”

It’s tough to judge whether Harrison’s absence had any impact on the “After the Final Rose” ratings, because ABC hadn’t done one of those specials since 2018.

CBS won the week in the ratings, with an average of 4.5 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 3.6 million, ABC had 3.4 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 1.1 million.

👉Top 20 Prime Times Show (Total Viewers):

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 9.99 million.

2. “FBI,” CBS, 8.08 million.

3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.89 million.

4. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.85 million.

5. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.49 million.

6. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.1 million.

7. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 6.26 million.

8. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 6.22 million.

9. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 6.1 million.

10. “The Bachelor: After the Final Rose,” ABC, 5.67 million.

11. “American Idol,” ABC, 5.64 million.

12. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 5.39 million.

13. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 5.13 million.

14. “Bull,” CBS, 5.123 million.

15. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 5.122 million.

16. “Station 19,” ABC, 5.106 million.

17. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.105 million.

18. “This is Us,” NBC, 5.01 million.

19. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 4.99 million.

20. NCAA Men’s Basketball: Wisconsin vs. North Carolina, CBS, 4.44 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.7 million viewers, NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5 million.

Fox News Channel led the cable rankings for evenings, averaging 2.23 million viewers. TBS had 1.88 million, MSNBC had 1.65 million, TNT had 1.41 million and HGTV had 1.2 million.

FNC also remains the top-rated in all of cable in total prime time viewers year-to-date and notched its 5th consecutive week as No. 1 in all of cable in total viewers.

Additionally, Tucker Carlson held onto the No. 1 slot on cable news, finishing the week as the top program in total viewers (3 million) and among adults 25-54 (495,000) for the second consecutive week. Hannity ranked No. 2 on cable news in the demo (411,000), and No. 3 in total viewers (2.7 million).

Not all of the ratings news was positive, however. Compared to the prior week, Fox News shed -9% of its average total prime time audience, and was down -13% in the prime time demo. In total day, the network fell -5% in total viewers, and -13% in the demo.

According to Nielsen Media Research ratings data, MSNBC averaged 1.404 million viewers for the full day in the first quarter. CNN averaged 1.398 million and Fox News averaged 1.324 million. During the quarter — which will end this coming Sunday, but for which there is sufficient data to call an early win for MSNBC — the news networks have been the top three cable channels overall. For comparison, HGTV was in fourth place with an average of 669,000 total viewers.

👉Basic Cable Ranker (Total Viewers):

👉Cable TV Ranker (Adults 25-54):