TV Ratings For The Week: NFL Is Strong Lead-In For 'Fire Country'

Sunday’s episode of “Fire Country” on CBS drew the largest audience for a scripted series episode since the April 6, 2021, episode of “NCIS,” 10.082 million viewers.

The first-season drama, which followed coverage of the AFC championship game, finished third among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Jan. 23 and Sunday, according to The LA Times citing  live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC championship game averaged 53.124 million viewers, the most for an NFL conference championship since Jan. 20, 2019, when the New England Patriots’ 37-31 overtime victory over the Chiefs averaged 53.918 million viewers. The viewership for the 2019 game did not include out-of-home viewing, which Nielsen began including in its ratings figures in September 2020.

The AFC championship game also drew television’s largest audience since NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, 2022. The “Fire Country” episode followed the 21-minute AFC championship game postgame show, which averaged 24.326 million viewers.

The combination of the AFC championship game and having each of the six most popular non-sports programs and nine of the top 11 made CBS the most-watched network for the first time in the 19-week-old 2022-23 prime-time television season, averaging 11.81 million viewers.

ABC was second, averaging 2.82 million, and NBC third, averaging 2.73 million. CBS’ top program outside of its Sunday programming was “NCIS,” fourth for the week, averaging 7.536 million viewers. CBS had the highest rated comedy for the 17th time in the season, with “The Neighborhood” averaging 6.411 million viewers, sixth for the week. “Celebrity Jeopardy!” was ABC’s ratings leader, finishing 17th, averaging 4.435 million viewers. “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” was NBC’s top ranked program, finishing ninth for the week, averaging 5.774 million viewers.

The third episode of NBC’s revival of “Night Court” was 14th for the week, 12th among non-sports programs and third among comedies, averaging 5.175 million viewers, 31.5% less than the 7.544-million average for its premiere a week earlier, which was the most for a comedy premiere since ABC’s “The Conners” averaged 10.567 million viewers on Oct. 16, 2018. Fox averaged 1.87 million viewers. 

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of the AFC championship game and its 21-minute postgame show; nine CBS scripted programs and “The Price Is Right at Night”; four NBC scripted programs and “America’s Got Talent: All-Stars”; and the ABC alternative programs “Celebrity Jeopardy!” and “Shark Tank” and its scripted series “The Rookie.”

📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS

Breaking news stories including on-site coverage of the Monterey Park, Calif., shooting boosted week of January 23 Nielsen ratings for the evening newscasts, according to TV Newser.

As expected, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the top-rated evening newscast for the week, meaning ABC’s evening news offering has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 217 of the past 218 weeks in average total viewers—and 145 of the last 147 weeks among adults 25-54.

World News Tonight averaged 9 million total linear viewers during the week of Jan. 23, a +3% gain from the previous week (the week of Jan. 16) and the second-largest audience on all of U.S. television, excluding sports programming, of course. 

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 7.76 million total viewers on linear during the week of Jan. 23, making it the fourth-most-watched U.S. show of the week—excluding sports, specials and syndication.  CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.7 million total viewers this past week, +4% from the previous week and +2% vs. the year-ago week.

📺CABLE TV

The five editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” were the top five prime-time cable programs, led by the Wednesday edition, which averaged 3.508 million viewers, 28th overall.  Fox News Channel won the prime-time cable network race, averaging 2.069 million viewers. MSNBC was second, averaging 1.042 million, and HGTV third, averaging 914,000.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

In terms of individual programming, The Five is the most-watched cable news show for the week, averaging 3.36 million total viewers. Tucker Carlson Tonight is second place in total viewers (3.22 million at 8 p.m.), with Jesse Watters Primetime (3 million at 7 p.m.), with Hannity (2.60 million at 9 p.m.) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.49 million viewers at 6 p.m.) rounding out the top five.

Tucker Carlson Tonight took the top spot on cable news among adults 25-54, per usual, averaging 473,000 viewers from the measurement at 8 p.m. The Five ranks No. 2 (373,000) followed by Watters (360,000), Hannity (322,000) and The Ingraham Angle (303,000) rounding out the top five in the key demo.

Fox News had the 13-most-watched cable news shows for the week

 
Other shows making the Top 20...all three hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling program “WWE Raw”; History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; the Hallmark Channel movie “Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance”; and ESPN’s coverage of the Kansas-Kentucky college basketball game.

📺STREAMING TV

The movie “You People” was Netflix’s most-streamed program, with viewers spending 55.65 million hours watching the romantic comedy in the first three days it was available, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday.

The second season of “Ginny & Georgia” was Netflix’s most popular television program for the fourth time in the four weeks it has been available, with viewers spending 55.61 million hours watching its 10 episodes.