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Thursday, January 12, 2023

TV Ratings: House Speaker Election Boosts CNN, MSNBC


The drama over the election of a new House speaker sparked a 30% rise in CNN’s prime-time viewership and a 7.1% increase for MSNBC, while Fox News Channel experienced a 10.1% decrease.

CNN averaged 898,000 viewers for its prime-time programming between Jan. 2-8, fifth among cable networks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday. It averaged 691,000 the week of Jan. 3-9, 2022, 11th for the week.


The LA Times reports Prince Harry’s first American television interview in connection with the release of his memoir “Spare” gave “60 Minutes” its largest audience of the season, 11.215 million viewers, eighth for the week behind three NFL games, three NFL pregame shows, and the ABC-ESPN simulcast of the edition of “SportsCenter” that followed “Monday Night Football,” and most among non-NFL prime-time programs.

The week’s most-watched prime-time program was the ABC-ESPN-ESPN2 simulcast of the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals “Monday Night Football” game Jan. 2 which averaged a combined 23.794 million viewers. Play was suspended after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field after making a tackle with five minutes, 58 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The top 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; five NFL pregame shows; two NFL postgame shows; “60 Minutes”; six CBS entertainment series episodes; and the three elements of NBC’s “Chicago” franchise, “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.”

With “Sunday Night Football” drawing its largest audience since its season opener, NBC was the top ranked network for the 13th time in the 16-week-old 2022-23 television season, averaging 6.14 million viewers.

Two NFL games enabled ABC to average a season-high 5.23 million viewers, with its first second-place finish since the season’s first week. ABC has finished third among the broadcast networks seven times and fourth seven times.

CBS was third, averaging 4.77 million viewers. Its only prime-time NFL programming was a 34-minute runover of its afternoon coverage into prime time, which averaged 14.5 million viewers.

On “Sunday Night Football” the Detroit Lions’ 20-16 victory over the Green Bay Packers — which eliminated the Packers from the playoffs — averaged 22.251 million viewers, second for the week. The total audience, which includes streaming viewership on Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL digital platforms, was 23.6 million viewers, the biggest audience for a “Sunday Night Football” last game of the season in six years, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics figures.

NBC’s top rated non-NFL program was “Chicago Fire,” 13th for the week averaging 7.058 million viewers, fourth among non-NFL programs and third among entertainment programs. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent: All-Stars,” which averaged 5.272 million viewers, 24th for the week, 14th among non-NFL programs and 13th among entertainment programs, led the week’s four premieres.

ABC’s top non-NFL program was “The Rookie,” 27th for the week averaging 4.691 million viewers, 17th among non-NFL programs and 16th among entertainment programs. ABC’s lone premiere, the crime drama “Will Trent,” was 39th for the week, averaging 3.61 million viewers, 28th among non-NFL programs, 27th among entertainment programs, second in its 10 p.m. time slot Jan. 3 and fifth among entertainment programs beginning at 10 p.m.

The CBS crime drama “FBI” led entertainment programs for the fourth time in the season, averaging 7.591 million viewers, 11th for the week and second among non-NFL programs. CBS’ “Young Sheldon” was the most popular comedy for 11th time, averaging 7.428 million viewers, 12th for the week, third among non-NFL programs and second among entertainment programs. Each of the show’s nine first-run episodes have been their week’s top comedy.

Two NFL games put ESPN at the top of the cable network race for the fourth consecutive week and ninth time in 11 weeks, averaging 2.592 million viewers.


📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS

David Muir, Norah O'Donnell, Lester Holt

David Muir, Lester Holt and Norah O’Donnell returned to their respective anchor seats last week after a holiday break, and their audiences returned with them.

TV Newser reports Muir’s ABC World News Tonight kicked off 2023 like it ended 2022 — by finishing No. 1 in average total viewers and No. 1 in the Adults 25-54 demo. This now means ABC’s evening newscast has defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 214 of the past 215 weeks in average total viewers—and 142 of the last 144 weeks among adults 25-54.

WNT averaged more than 9.26 million total linear viewers during the week of Jan. 2, 2023, a +10% gain from the previous week (the week of Dec. 26) and No. 2 on all of U.S. television, excluding sports programming. 

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt remained the second-ranked evening newscast and the third-most-watched regularly-scheduled TV program, averaging 7.74 million total viewers along with 1.35 million A25-54 during the week of Jan. 2, 2023. That’s +7% and +12%, respectively, from what the newscast drew in those measurements the week prior. 

CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged more than 5.65 million total viewers this past week, which is the show’s largest audience in nearly one year (since Jan. 31, 2022), +10% from the previous week but -1% with the year-ago week.


📺LATE NIGHT TV


Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN







📺CABLE TV

After a week-long drop to second place, Fox News Channel regained its position as the most-watched basic cable network in total day this past week, reports TV Newser.

According to live plus same day data from Nielsen, Fox News averaged 1.44 million total viewers and 191,000 adults 25-54 in total day (No. 5 on basic cable) during the first week of 2023, which featured live coverage and analysis of the House Speaker vote. The 1.44 million represents a +31% gain from the previous week—the week between Christmas and New Year’s—while the 191,000 A25-54 average represents a +43% gain from the previous week.

In primetime, Fox News remained No. 2 on basic cable in total viewers (2.06 million), but climbed up to the No. 5 spot in A25-54 viewing (it ranked No. 19 the previous week), averaging 252,000 demo viewers. The 2.06 million average is +54% from the previous week, while the 252,000 A25-54 average is +85% from the previous week, with the substantial primetime gains driven by Speaker vote coverage as well as the end of the holiday season, when regular cable TV viewing habits typically resume.

Relative to the same week one year ago, however, Fox News lost -10% in total primetime viewers and -31% in the primetime demo.

CNN’s live coverage of the multi-day House speaker vote, which started Tuesday and finally concluded in the wee hours of Saturday, delivered huge ratings for the network. In addition to being the No. 1 cable news outlet among adults 25-54 during the House speaker vote, last week represented CNN’s most-watched non-election week since the week of March 7.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

The cable top 20 consisted two NFL games, one NFL pregame show and one NFL postgame show, which also were simulcast by ABC; 12 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” four of “Hannity” and three of “The Ingraham Angle”); the Hallmark Channel movie “The Wedding Veil Expectations”; History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; and two editions of the MSNBC news and opinion program, “All In With Chris Hayes.”

📺STREAMING TV

The second season of “Ginny & Georgia” ended “Wednesday’s” six-week streak as Netflix’s most-streamed television program, with viewers spending 180.47 million hours on the 10 episodes in the first four days they were available, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday.

“Kaleidoscope” was second with 112.32 million hours watched of its eight episodes Jan. 2-8, the first full week they were available. The heist drama was released Jan. 1. “Wednesday” was third with 81.34 million hours watched, 31.4% less than the 118.54 million hours watched the previous week.

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was Netflix’s most popular film for the second consecutive week, with viewers watching for 44.32 million hours, 65.2% less than the 127.25 million hours the previous week, its first full week of release.

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