TV Ratings: '60 Minutes' Paces A CBS Win, FOX Wins Cable

CBS won its first week of the new television season, primarily by being the network of choice for people who wanted to watch something other than sports.

CBS had 14 of the 20 most-watched non-sports shows on network television last week, while NBC had the other five and Fox had one. ABC was shut out, the Associated Press reports citing Nielsen data.

It was CBS’ first victory of the still-new television season, eclipsing NBC which had won every week since late September.

As it has been hundreds of time since the ticking stopwatch first appeared, CBS’ most popular show of the week was “60 Minutes.”

CBS averaged 6.2 million viewers in prime time. NBC was second with 5.6 million, Fox had 4.9 million, ABC had 3.5 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and Ion Television had 920,000.

➤Top 20 Prime Time TV Shows:

1. NFL Football: Seattle at Pittsburgh, NBC, 16.28 million.

2. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, Fox, 14.42 million.

3. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, 12.03 million.

4. NFL Football: Indianapolis at Baltimore, ESPN, 11.34 million.

5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.02 million.

6. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 8.94 million.

7. “NFL Postgame” (Sunday), Fox, 8.93 million.

8. “NFL Pregame” (Thursday), Fox, 8.9 million.

9. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.66 million.

10. “Equalizer,” CBS, 7.3 million.

11. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.25 million.

12. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.01 million.

13. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.94 million.

14. “FBI,” CBS, 6.75 million.

15. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.55 million.

16. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.54 million.

17. Baseball: Division Series, Game 5: L.A. Dodgers at San Francisco, TBS, 6.5 million.

18. Baseball: ALCS, Game 1: Boston at Houston, Fox, 6.14 million.

19. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.98 million.

20. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.95 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.9 million.

With baseball playoffs in full gear, TBS led the cable networks in prime time, averaging 3.1 million viewers. ESPN had 2.5 million, Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 1.17 million and HGTV had 924,000.

TVNewser reports Tucker Carlson Tonight marked its second consecutive week as the No. 1 cable news show (3.11 million total viewers/490,000 adults 25-54). Fox News’ The Five remained No. 2 in average total viewers (3.0 million). Hannity remained the No. 3 cable news show in average total viewers ( 2.71 million), followed by Special Report with Bret Baier (2.22 million) and for the first time, Fox News Primetime guest-hosted by Jesse Watters rounded out the cable news’ top five in total viewers (2.18 million). 

Fox News had 13 of the 15-most-watched shows on cable news for the second consecutive week. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show finished No. 7 in total viewers, and was once again the top non-Fox News show on cable news, averaging 2.06 million total viewers for the week.