TV Ratings: A Week of Turkey and Sports

Some marquee contests led to some TV milestones, including the most-watched regular season pro football game ever and most-seen soccer game on American television, reports AP News citing Nielsen data.

The Dallas Cowboys’ defeat of the New York Giants shown on Fox Thanksgiving Day was seen by an estimated 42 million people, Nielsen said. Two teams with national followings, both having strong years, playing on a day where there’s a captive audience, led to the record. The previous best was a December 1990 game between the Giants and San Francisco.

Fox’s telecast of the World Cup match between the U.S. and England reached 15.38 million people on Friday. That alone beat the previous U.S. record-holder, the 1994 World Cup championship, and didn’t even count the audience on Telemundo, which lifted the total U.S. audience to nearly 20 million.

The Michigan-Ohio State college football game on Saturday — two traditional rivals both undefeated going into the matchup, playing a game with big scoring plays — was seen by 17 million people. That was the biggest audience for a regular season college football game since 2011, and the largest ever for Fox, Nielsen said.

CBS and NBC both had strong numbers for their Thanksgiving games. The 31.6 million who watched Buffalo and Detroit was the most popular game on CBS so far this season, Nielsen said.

Meanwhile, NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was seen by 25.8 million people, the most popular entertainment program of the year.

NBC was the week’s most popular network, averaging 8.2 million viewers in prime time. CBS had 4.1 million, Fox had 3.41 million, ABC had 3.35 million, Univision had 1.1 million, Ion had 870,000 and Telemundo had 820,000.

📺Top 20 Prime Times Show for the week Nov 14-20 (Total Viewers):

1. NFL Football: New England at Minnesota, NBC, 24.78 million.

2. “NFL Postgame” (Thursday), Fox, 21.66 million.

3. NFL Football: Green Bay at Philadelphia, NBC, 19.57 million.

4. “NFL Pregame” (Thursday), NBC, 18.13 million.

5. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, 14.85 million.

6. NFL Football: San Francisco at Arizona, ESPN, 11.17 million.

7. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 10.77 million.

8. “The OT,” Fox, 9.11 million.

9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.03 million.

10. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, 8.36 million.

11. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 7.86 million.

12. “FBI,” CBS, 7.54 million.

13. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.85 million.

14. College Football: Florida at Florida St., ABC, 6.71 million.

15. College Football: Notre Dame at USC, ABC, 6.68 million.

16. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 6.56 million.

17. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.19 million.

18. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 5.98 million.

19. “Football Night in America, Part 2,” NBC, 5.97 million.

20. “NFL Pregame” (Monday), ESPN, 5.87 million.

📺BROADCAST MORNING NEWS TV:

TODAY was the number-one morning show outright for the week, topping “Good Morning America” in total viewers and the key A25-54 and A18-49 demos. The win marks TODAY’s first total viewer win since February 2022, largest total viewership in a year and biggest advantage over GMA since the PyeongChang Olympics in both total viewers and the key demo. Compared to the competition, TODAY was the only morning program to post gains across the board. Additionally, TODAY delivered a twelve-month high in total viewers, key demo A25-54 and A18-49.

For 8 consecutive November sweeps, NBC News’ TODAY has been the number-one morning show in the key demo, beating ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Compared to the prior sweep, TODAY grew in both the key A25-54 demo and total viewership.

TODAY won the key demo for the month of November, posting its first A25-54 win and biggest monthly demo audience in 7 months and widest monthly advantage over GMA in a year. Versus the prior month, TODAY posted the biggest growth across-the-board among the morning shows and narrowed the total viewer gap with GMA by more than half.

Season to date, TODAY is the top-rated morning show in the key demo A25-54 and A18-49 for eight years straight.

📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS TV:

ABC's David Muir, NBC's Lester Holt, CBS' Norah O'Donnell

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million

TV Newser reports top-ranked ABC World News Tonight held on to its No. 1 status during the Thanksgiving holiday-shortened week of November 21  — meaning it has now defeated its evening news competition from NBC and CBS 208 of the past 209 weeks in average total viewers—and 137 of the last 139 weeks among adults 25-54.  WNT also won the November sweep period for the third consecutive year, and was the only evening newscast to gain total viewers from Nov. 2021 sweep (+2%, 8.44 million vs. 8.29 million).

📺LATE NIGHT TV:

Graphic courtesy of RoandMN

During November, Gutfeld! delivered its highest-rated month since launch in viewers and A25-54, topping all of late-night television across the board in viewers with 2,322,000 viewers. Host Greg Gutfeld also outpaced CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the younger A25-54 demographic for the full month for the first time with 397,000. During the month of November, Gutfeld! bested CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2,134,000 P2+; 375,000 A25-54), ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! (1,395,000 P2+; 309,000 A25-54) and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (1,524,000 P2+; 434,000 A25-54) in total viewers and defeated Colbert and Kimmel in A25-54. In cable, FNC’s late-night show swept Comedy Central’s The Daily Show (419,000 P2+, 148,000 A25-54) across the board in total viewers, the 25-54 demo and 18-49. Airing at 11 PM/ET, the program topped every show on CNN and MSNBC as well with both viewers and A25-54.

📺CABLE TV:

For the week...ESPN led the cable networks with a 2.99 million average in prime time. Hallmark had 1.71 million, Fox News Channel had 1.64 million, Paramount had 1.24 million and MSNBC had 772,000.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

For the month, FOX News Channel (FNC) finished November 2022 marking four straight months defeating CNN and MSNBC combined across total day and primetime. 

In terms of the basic cable competition, FNC has won with total day viewers for 21 consecutive months. FNC also notched 93 of the top 100 cable news telecasts for the month. Notably, FNC was up the most month over month with total viewers amongst cable news networks. In total day, FNC delivered 1.6 million viewers, 227,000 in the 25-54 demo and 141,000 with the 18-49 demo. In primetime, FNC netted 2.4 million viewers, 356,000 in the 25-54 demo and 231,000 with the 18-49 demo. 

The network secured the top 14 programs in cable news with viewers and the top 15 cable news programs in the 25-54 demo. FNC’s primetime coverage on Election Night, November 8th, delivered 7,422,000 viewers and 1,879,000 in the 25-54 younger demographic, making it the highest-rated election night coverage in all of television in total viewers and the A25-54 demographic, beating ABC, NBC, CBS and topping CNN and MSNBC combined across the board. Additionally, Gutfeld! saw its best month since launch besting all broadcast and cable late-night programs with viewers.

Attracting 56% of cable news viewers across primetime and 54% in total day, FNC continued to deliver over half the genre’s audience share. According to Nielsen MRI Fusion, FNC also remained the most-watched network across the political spectrum with more Independents and Democrats choosing FNC as their preferred network than MSNBC and CNN in total day and primetime viewers in the A25-54 demo. FNC was also the number one cable news network among Hispanic and Asian households across total day and primetime with viewers.

At 5 PM/ET, The Five continued as the number one rated show with viewers for the eighth consecutive month and finished first in cable news for the last 11 out of 12 months. The roundtable program averaged 3.7 million viewers, 466,000 with 25-54 demo and 285,000 in the 18-49 demo, outpacing every show on CNN and MSNBC across the board. At 8 PM/ET, Tucker Carlson Tonight continued as the highest-rated program in cable news in the younger 25-54 and 18-49 demos, averaging 3.5 million viewers and 506,000 in the 25-54 demo, as well as 318,000 in the 18-49 category throughout November. Hannity at 9 PM/ET scored 3.1 million viewers, 428,000 in the 25-54 demo and 266,000 among adults 18-49, achieving the third most-watched program with A25-54 and outpacing the competition on MSNBC and CNN combined. Comparatively, CNN averaged just 526,000 viewers and 114,000 with A25-54 at 9 PM. At 10 PM/ET, The Ingraham Angle garnered 2.5 million viewers, 362,000 in the 25-54 demo and 221,000 in 18-49 continuing her streak as the most-watched female in cable news. Notably, FNC’s The Five and Tucker Carlson Tonight both beat Good Morning America, Greys Anatomy and Tulsa King in total viewers.

📺COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV:

As one would expect, Michigan-Ohio State dominated week thirteen of the season with college football’s largest regular season audience in 11 years (keep in mind out-of-home viewing is included now and was not included prior to two years ago). In a bit of an upset, Florida-FSU took second place on Thanksgiving weekend in its special Black Friday primetime slot on ABC.