Wednesday, October 13, 2021

TV Ratings: FOX News Beats MSNBC, CNN Combined


The lead character of television’s most popular drama exited the show Monday without a fuss, and without the immediate ratings bump, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen data.

“NCIS” star Mark Harmon, who has played Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs since the CBS drama began in 2003, had his final night as a regular character on Monday’s show. Gibbs informed his partner after working on a case in Alaska that he was going to stay there.

At Harmon’s request, CBS made no special promotion of the occasion, a muted departure for an industry that has never been shy about hawking the movements of big stars.

That may partly be because Harmon, 70, hasn’t ruled out the possibility of an occasional return.

Monday’s show was seen by an estimated 7.37 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. That number is expected to increase substantially once streaming and delayed viewing is taken into account, particularly as word of Harmon’s exit spreads.

“NCIS” has been television’s most popular drama for 11 of the past 12 seasons, the only exception being 2017-18, when NBC’s “This is Us” was hot.

Yet it stands as a symbol of another era in television. While the 7.96 million live viewers who watched last week made it, once again, TV’s most popular drama, its audience is older. Five other dramas had more viewers in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic most advertisers crave, Nielsen said.

NBC was the most popular network in prime time last week, averaging 6.1 million viewers. CBS had 5.9 million, Fox had 5.3 million, ABC had 3.5 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and Ion Television had 910,000.

➤Top 20 Prime-Time Shows:

1. NFL Football: Buffalo at Kansas City, NBC, 17.52 million.

2. NFL Football: L.A. Rams at Seattle, Fox, 14.76 million.

3. “NFL Weather Delay,” NBC, 14.75 million.

4. “NFL Post-Game,” Fox, 14 million.

5. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, 13.64 million

6. NFL Football: Las Vegas at L.A. Chargers, ESPN, 12.32 million.

7. “The OT,” Fox, 10.24 million.

8. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 9.39 million.

9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.47 million.

10. College Football: Alabama at Texas A&M, CBS, 8.33 million.

11. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.96 million.

12. “Equalizer, CBS, 7.67 million.

13. “NFL Pregame” (Thursday), Fox, 7.57 million.

14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.48 million.

15. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 7.21 million.

16. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.18 million.

17. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.118 million.

18. ML Baseball: A.L. Wild Card, N.Y. Yankees at Boston, ESPN, 7.117 million.

19. “NFL Pregame” (Monday), ESPN, 7.1 million.

20. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.02 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.8 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.8 million.


ESPN led the cable networks with a 2.92 million average in prime time while Fox News Channel, in its 25th anniversary week, reached 2.25 million. TBS had 2.21 million, MSNBC had 1.17 million and HGTV had 885,000.


After back-to-back weeks in second place, Tucker Carlson Tonight finished this past week as the most-watched cable news show (3.13 million), knocking off Fox News’ 5 p.m. offering The Five (3.06 million), reports TV Newser.

Hannity remained the No. 3 cable news show of the in average total viewers (2.91 million), followed by Special Report with Bret Baier (2.31 million) and The Ingraham Angle (2.285 million) rounding out the top five in total viewers. Fox News had 13 of the 15-most-watched shows on cable news last week. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show once again finished No. 6 in total viewers (2.12 million), and was once again the top non-Fox News show on cable news.

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