TV Ratings: Viewers Surged During Cold Weather Weekend

An average of 30.5 million people watched the NFL’s wild card games on television and digitally over the weekend, which the league said was up 21% over the same games in 2021, reports The Associated Presss.

One game alone..Georgia’s victory over Alabama for the NCAA football championship last week reached 22.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. That allowed the NCAA to rebound from the lackluster ratings of the New Year’s Eve semifinals, which featured two non-competitive games.

TV ratings for the NFL’s wild-card round increased 21% over last year despite most of the games not being in doubt going into the fourth quarter.

The six games averaged 30.5 million viewers, making it the second-highest average for the postseason’s opening weekend over the past six seasons, according to The AP.

CBS and Nickelodeon’s broadcast of San Francisco’s 23-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys led the weekend, averaging 41.5 million viewers. The audience peaked at 50.2 million for the conclusion. It is the most-viewed game this season, surpassing the 40.8 million for the Thanksgiving Day game between the Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders.

It is also the second-most watched wild-card game over the past eight seasons, with Detroit-Dallas in January 2015 (42.3 million) being the only game to outdraw it.

The Nickelodeon-only audience was 1.33 million, which was down 35% from last year’s 2.06 million. More viewers were likely to stick with the traditional CBS broadcast because of the game going down to the final play.

Boosted by their wild card games, CBS averaged 10 million viewers and NBC had 6.8 million in prime time last week. ABC averaged 2.7 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 900,000.

📺The Top 20 Prime-Time TV Shows (Total Viewers):

1. NFL Wild Card: Pittsburgh at Kansas City, NBC, 28.94 million.

2. NFL Wild Card: New England at Buffalo, CBS, 26.37.

3. “Wild Card Post Game” (Sunday), CBS, 25.5 million.

4. NCAA Football Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, ESPN, 22.26 million.

5. “Wild Card Pre Game” (Sunday), NBC, 19.64 million.

6. “NCAA Championship Post Game,” ESPN, 18.37 million.

7. “NCAA Championship Pre Game,” ESPN, 13.78 million.

8. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.29 million.

9. “FBI,” CBS, 8.45 million.

10. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.7 million.

11. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.41 million.

12. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.33 million.

13. “Ghosts,” CBS, 6.48 million.

14. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.44 million.

15. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.29 million.

16. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.81 million.

17. “Magnum, P.I., CBS, 5.77 million.

18. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 5.56 million.

19. “United States of Al,” CBS, 5.48 million.

20. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 5.03 million.

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir finished the week of Jan. 10, 2022 as the No. 1 evening newscast, both in total viewers (9.03 million) and among adults 25-54 (1.73 million). TVNewser reports the newscast’s 9.03 million average makes it the second-most-watched TV show of the week, excluding sports, specials and syndication. Additionally, ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 162 of the past 163 weeks in average total viewers—and 92 of the last 94 weeks among adults 25-54.

Late Night TV

Cable TV

According to TVNewser citing live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, Fox News Channel averaged 1.45 million total viewers in total day during the week of Jan. 10, 2022, making it the most-watched network on basic cable in the Monday-Sunday 6 a.m.-6 a.m. time period. FNC also averaged 232,000 adults 25-54 in total day this past week, placing it at No. 2 on basic cable in the daypart behind ESPN (480,000).

FNC averaged 2.29 million total viewers in primetime, good enough for No. 2 on basic cable behind ESPN (3.85 million average total viewers), but -1% from the previous week. The network also ranked No. 2 behind ESPN among the A25-54 demo this past week, averaging 346,000 viewers, a loss of -5% from the previous week.

Despite the decline in primetime, Fox News averaged more total viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined for the 22nd consecutive week.

Graphics courtesy of RoadMN (used w/permission)

On the programming front, The Five, which was the most-watched show on cable news in Q4 of last year, was the most-watched show on cable news yet again, averaging nearly 3.5 million total viewers in the 5 p.m. hour. Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged the most adults 25-54 on cable news last week, delivering 544,000 on average at 8 p.m.

Tucker Carlson Tonight was the second-most-watched cable news show of the week (3.43 million), followed by Hannity (2.9 million), Special Report with Bret Baier (2.5 million) and The Ingraham Angle (2.42 million) rounding the top five in average total viewers.