TV Ratings: Tom Brady Scores

NBC relentlessly promoted the Tampa Bay quarterback’s return to New England, and the Bucs-Patriots game reached the biggest “Sunday Night Football” audience in years, the Nielsen company said.

The Associated Press reports the 26.7 million people who tuned in represented NBC’s biggest television audience for the game since 2015. Add in people who streamed it, and the game reached 28 million, the biggest “Sunday Night Football” crowd since 2012, Nielsen said.

Despite that competition, CBS’ “60 Minutes” reached 10.3 million people, its largest audience since last January. Viewership was about 12 million for the first part of the show, before the competing football game started and during the story about Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

NBC won the second week of the television season handily, averaging 7.5 million viewers. CBS averaged 5.3 million, ABC had 3,7 million, Fox had 2.1 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and Ion Television had 890,000.

➤Top 20 Prime-Time Shows:

1. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at New England, NBC, 26.75 million.

2. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, 20.32 million.

3. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 14.64 million.

4. NFL Football: Philadelphia at Dallas, ESPN, 12.9 million.

5. “NFL Postgame” (Sunday), Fox, 11.98 million.

6. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.32 million.

7. “Football Night in America, Part 2,” NBC, 9.12 million.

8. “NCIS,” CBS, 8.06 million.

9. NFL Football: Jacksonville at Cincinnati, NFL Network, 8 million.

10. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 7.44 million.

11. “FBI,” CBS, 7.37 million.

12. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.36 million.

13. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.86 million.

14. “NFL Pregame” (Monday), ESPN, 6.85 million.

15. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.71 million.

16. “La Brea,” NBC, 6.37 million.

17. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.3 million.

18. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 6.22 million.

19. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.04 million.

20. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.9 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8 million viewer. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.8 million.

ESPN led cable networks, averaging 2.78 million in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 1.19 million, HGTV had 972,000 and TLC had 832,000.

TV Newser reports Fox News’ 5 p.m. offering The Five was the most-watched show on cable news for the second consecutive week, averaging 3.18 million total viewers.  Tucker Carlson Tonight finished second (3.08 million) followed by Hannity (2.68 million), Special Report with Bret Baier (2.28 million) and The Ingraham Angle (2.25 million) rounding out the top five in total viewers. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show finished No. 6 in total viewers (2.155 million), and was the top non-Fox News show on cable news last week.

Carlson, not The Five, ranked No. 1 among adults 25-54 (486,000). The Five came second in the demo (446,000), followed by Hannity (412,000), The Ingraham Angle (385,000) and Special Report (330,000).

➤Late Night TV Rankings: