TV Ratings: ‘House of the Dragon’ Finale Has Wings on HBO

Sunday’s first-season finale of “House of the Dragon” averaged 9.3 million viewers across all platforms, the most for an HBO finale since the 2019 series finale of “Game of Thrones,” according to what the cable network and its streaming service HBO Max called a “combination of Nielsen and first-party data.”

According to a story in the L-A Times, the 9 p.m. airing of the “Game of Thrones” prequel on HBO was second among the night’s prime-time cable programs, averaging 1.846 million viewers. Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on TBS finished first, averaging 4.67 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the ratings leader for the night and the week, averaging 15.534 million viewers, a season low. The total audience for the Miami Dolphins’ 16-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers — which includes streaming viewership on Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL digital platforms — was 16.5 million viewers, also the lowest this season. The game included the first scoreless second half in the “Sunday Night Football” package since the 2008 NFL Kickoff game. “Sunday Night Football” has been the top-rated prime-time program each of the seven weeks of the 2022 NFL season.

The CBS crime drama “FBI” had the biggest audience for entertainment programs for the second consecutive week and third time in the season, averaging 7.106 million viewers, eighth for the week. “Chicago Fire” was the only other non-NFL program to top 7 million viewers, averaging 7.026 million viewers, ninth for the week and first among non-NFL programs on NBC.

CBS police procedural “East New York” was the top-ranked new series for the second time in the four weeks it has aired, averaging 5.291 million viewers, tying the network’s “FBI: Most Wanted” for 25th for the week and 15th among non-sports programs.

NBC averaged 5.14 million viewers to finish first for the seventh consecutive week, coinciding with the start of the NFL season. CBS was second, averaging 4.72 million. Fox was third, 4.02 million for its 16 hours, 43 minutes of prime-time programming. ABC was fourth, averaging 2.95 million.

“The Watcher” was Netflix’s most-streamed program for the second time in the two weeks it has been available. Viewers spent 148.24 million hours watching the seven episodes of the first season of the Ryan Murphy-produced mystery thriller inspired by a true story during the first full week of its release, according to figures released by the streaming service. Viewership was up 18.6% from the 125.01 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for four days.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was second for the second consecutive week after finishing first each of the first three weeks it was available with 69.1 million hours watched of the 10-episode limited series, which is also produced by Murphy.

“The School for Good and Evil” was Netflix’s top-rated movie, with 78.83 million hours watched of the fantasy film in its first five days of release. “Luckiest Girl Alive” dropped to third with 19.3 million hours watched. The Mila Kunis-starring drama about a successful young woman who struggles with the lingering trauma of a devastating sexual assault as a teenager finished first for each of the first two weeks it was available.

“The Curse of Bridge Hollow” was second for the second consecutive week, with 25.34 million hours watched in the fantasy comedy’s first full week of release, a 1% increase from the 25.12 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.