TV Ratings: Men's Hoops Good For CBS, TBS

The episode of “60 Minutes” that followed Sunday’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament was the top-ranked prime-time program, its second consecutive win, scoring 9.291 million viewers, its largest audience since Jan. 8.

The CBS newsmagazine — consisting of reports on advancements in artificial prosthetics technology; newsletter authors Ina and David Steiner, who were stalked and harassed by eBay employees; and a profile of basketball analyst Charles Barkley — followed a 39-minute runover of the network’s coverage of Miami’s 88-81 victory over Texas in the Midwest Regional final in the Eastern and Central time zones.

The Jan. 8 edition of “60 Minutes” featured Prince Harry’s first American television interview in connection with the release of his memoir, “Spare,” and averaged a season-high 11.215 million viewers.

The only other prime-time programs between March 20 and Sunday to average more than 7 million viewers also had ties to the college basketball tournament, according to The L-A Times citing live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.

CBS finished first for the seventh time in nine weeks, averaging 4.88 million viewers. It aired 10 of the week’s top 17 programs, including the highest-rated scripted program, “The Equalizer,” fourth for the week, averaging 6.831 million viewers; the top-ranked comedy, “The Neighborhood,” 10th for the week, averaging 5.679 million viewers; the most popular first-season program, police drama “East New York,” 15th, averaging 5.114 million; and the ratings leader for programs beginning at 10 p.m., “NCIS: Hawai’i,” 17th, averaging 4.982 million viewers.

The only times CBS has not finished first in the past nine weeks were the weeks of Feb. 6, when Fox aired Super Bowl LVII, and March 6, when ABC aired the Oscars.

NBC was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 3.36 million viewers. “Chicago Fire” was its highest-rated program, finishing fifth for the week, averaging 6.777 million viewers.

ABC was third among the broadcast networks for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.84 million viewers. “American Idol” was ABC’s ratings leader program for the fifth time in the six weeks it has aired this season, finishing 11th, averaging 5.253 million viewers. The only interruption to the streak was the week that ABC aired the Oscars.

Fox averaged 2.04 million viewers. The procedural drama “9-1-1” topped its ratings for the third consecutive week, finishing 24th, averaging 4.414 million viewers.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of six CBS scripted programs, “60 Minutes” and alternative series “Survivor”; four NCAA men’s basketball tournament games — three on CBS and one on TBS; two NCAA men’s basketball studio shows — one each on TBS and CBS; five NBC programs — the scripted programs “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.” and the two editions of its singing competition “The Voice”; and the ABC singing competition “American Idol.”

📺BROADCAST NEWS TV

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained No. 1 in the evenings, averaging 8.07 million total viewers and 1.24 million A25-54 viewers, reports TV Newser citing  live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.

ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 174 of the past 175 weeks in average total viewers—and 103 of the last 105 weeks among adults 25-54.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.77 million total viewers (No.5  among regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming) to go with 1.05 million A25-54 viewers during the week of March 20. 

The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.02 million total viewers and 752,000 adults 25-54 for the week of March 20.  The year-over-year ratings trend was mixed, with CBS Evening News up by +3% in average total viewers but -9% in A25-54 viewers. (Notice a trend? Americans under 55 are turning off linear TV news, while their elders continue to tune in).

📺LATE NIGHT TV

During first quarter of 2023...Gutfeld! continued to outpace a number of the late-night broadcast competition for the quarter, securing over 1.9 million viewers and 301,000 with A25-54. As host Greg Gutfeld nears his second year in late night television (April 5th), his eponymous program continues to defeat ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! (1.5 million P2+) and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (1.4 million P2+) with viewers. Year over year, CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was down 18% with A25-54, marking the biggest decrease in late night television.

📺CABLE TV

Cable rankings were topped by TBS’ coverage of the Connecticut-Gonzaga NCAA men’s basketball tournament game, which averaged 7.985 million viewers, second overall.

TBS’ NCAA tournament coverage enabled it to end Fox News Channel’s eight-week streak at the top of the cable ratings, averaging 3.078 million. Fox News Channel finished second, averaging 2.023 million, and ESPN third, averaging 1.201 million.

MSNBC was the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.183 million.

The cable top 20 consisted of three NCAA men’s basketball tournament games and three tournament studio shows on TBS; 11 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” four of “Hannity” and two of “The Ingraham Angle”); Fox Sports 1’s coverage of the Japan-United States World Baseball Classic championship game; the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; and ESPN’s coverage of Sunday’s Iowa-Louisville NCAA women’s basketball tournament Elite Eight game.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

In terms of individual programming, Tucker Carlson Tonight marked its third consecutive week as cable news’ most-watched show, averaging 3.215 million total viewers at 8 p.m. this past week, reports TV Newser.

The Five came in second with an average of 3.063 million viewers at 5 p.m. Jesse Watters Primetime remained third (2.59 million at 7 p.m.), with Hannity (2.56 million at 9 p.m.), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.14 million at 6 p.m.) rounding out the top five.

Carlson continues to draw the most Adults 25-54 on cable news, averaging 404,000 viewers from the measurement this past week. The Five came in second with 298,000 A25-54 viewers on average at 5 p.m., Hannity (265,000 at 9 p.m.) Jesse Watters Primetime (263,000 at 7 p.m.) with Gutfeld! (260,000) rounding out the top five in the key A25-54 demo.

Fox News had the eight-most-watched cable news shows and 12 of the top 15 for the week of March 20.

MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell moved up two spots to No. 9 in total viewers with a 1.64 million total viewer average at 10 p.m. The Beat with Ari Melber shot up three spots to No. 10 in total viewers (1.56 million viewers at 6 p.m.), and Alex Wagner Tonight entered the top 15 (No. 15) for the first time in many weeks with a 1.355 million average at 9 p.m.

Additionally, Fox News had the top 12 cable news shows of the week and 14 of the top 15 among Adults 25-54, with The Beat making an entrance at No. 13 with a 151,000 A25-54 viewer average at 6 p.m.

📺STREAMING TV

Sunday’s season premiere of “Succession” garnered a series-high 2.3 million viewers across HBO Max and cable telecasts, according to a statement from the streaming service’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

“The Night Agent” was Netflix’s most-streamed title, with viewers watching the 10-episode action thriller for 168.71 million hours during the first four days it was available, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday.

The second season of “Shadow and Bone” was second with 55.03 million hours watched of the fantasy’s eight episodes in their first full week of release, 9.2% more than the 50.4 million hours the previous week when they were available for four days.

“The Glory” was third after back-to-back first-place finishes with 48.35 million hours for the 16 episodes of the South Korean revenge thriller, 60.9% less than the 123.59 million hours the previous week, the first full week its second eight episodes were available.

“Luther: The Fallen Sun” was Netflix’s most popular movie for the third consecutive week, despite a 64.5% drop in viewership from the previous week. Viewers spent 24.7 million hours watching the continuation of the BBC psychological crime thriller in its second full week of release. “Luther: The Fallen Sun” was watched for 69.54 million hours the previous week and 65.92 million hours the week of March 6-12 when it was available for three days.

The animated children’s movie “The Magician’s Elephant” rose one spot to second with 16.73 million hours watched, a 22.2% increase over the 13.69 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.