TV Ratings: The NFL Is The Hottest Ticket

The CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” was the top-rated non-NFL program for the fourth time in the four-week-old 2022-23 prime-time television season, while “FBI” was the most-watched entertainment program for the first time since the season’s opening week, according to a story in the L-A Times.

“60 Minutes” averaged 10.719 million viewers, a season-high among non-NFL programs, and fifth among the prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Oct. 10 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen. The previous high was 10.274 million viewers for the Oct. 2 edition of “60 Minutes.”

Both of the season’s two most popular editions of “60 Minutes” followed runovers of CBS’ afternoon NFL coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones.

“FBI” averaged 7.407 million viewers, the season-high for an entertainment program. The CBS crime drama was sixth for the week and among four entertainment programs to average more than 7 million viewers. The others were CBS’ ‘The Equalizer” (7.32 million) and “Young Sheldon” (7.249 million) and NBC’s “Chicago Fire” (7.162 million).

CBS’ “Fire Country” was the highest-rated new series for the second time in the two weeks it has aired, averaging 5.802 million viewers, 18th for the week and 13th among non-NFL programs. Viewership dropped 1.9% from the 5.911 million average for its premiere one week earlier.

For the sixth time in the six-week-old NFL season, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was at the top of prime-time program rankings, with the Philadelphia Eagles’ 26-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys averaging 20.793 million, third among the season’s “Sunday Night Football” games.

NBC averaged 6.18 million viewers to finish first for the sixth consecutive week. CBS was second, averaging 5.83 million, and ABC third, averaging 2.84 million.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of two NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; “60 Minutes”; nine CBS scripted programs; NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago P.D.”; and the two episodes of NBC’s singing competition “The Voice.”

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” topped the week’s prime-time cable programs, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 30-29 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 10 averaging 15.789 million viewers, third overall.

“Monday Night Football” put ESPN at the top of the cable network averages for the third consecutive week and the sixth time in seven weeks, averaging 2.878 million viewers.

TBS was second, averaging 2.541 million viewers, thanks to three nights of American League Divisional Series games. Fox News Channel was third, averaging 2.15 million. MSNBC was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.287 million.

“The Watcher” was Netflix’s most-streamed program with viewers spending 125.01 million hours watching the seven episodes of the first season of Ryan Murphy-produced mystery thriller inspired by a true story during the first four days of its release, according to figures released by the streaming service.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was second with 122.78 million hours watched of the 10-episode limited series which is also produced by Murphy. Viewership was down 40.2% from the 205.33 million hours watched the previous week. “Dahmer” had finished first each of the first three weeks it was available.