TV Ratings: ‘Young Sheldon,’ ‘NCIS’ Propels CBS

The comedy “Young Sheldon” was the top rated prime-time program for the second time in three weeks, averaging 7.504 million viewers, helping CBS finish first in the network race for the fifth time in six weeks.

CBS also had the only other prime-time program between Feb. 27 and Sunday to average more than 7 million viewers — the action drama “NCIS,” which averaged 7.011 million viewers — and eight of the 10 programs averaging more than 6 million, according to The L-A Times citing live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

CBS averaged 4.94 million viewers for the week. ABC was second, averaging 3.2 million, and NBC third, averaging 3.14 million viewers.

CBS also had the week’s most popular 10 p.m. program, the long-running police drama “Blue Bloods,” which was ninth for the week, averaging 6.219 million viewers, and it had the biggest audience for a first-season series, “Fire Country,” 11th for the week averaging 5.998 million.

NBC’s “Chicago Fire” was the top non-CBS program, finishing fifth, averaging 6.715 million viewers, a week after finishing first when CBS aired a rerun of “Young Sheldon,” averaging 6.993 million viewers.

“American Idol” was ABC’s ratings leader for the third time in the three weeks it has aired this season, averaging a season-high 5.616 million viewers, 12th for the week. The season’s previous episodes averaged 5.269 million and 5.247 million viewers.

Fox averaged 1.79 million viewers. “The Masked Singer” was its highest rated program for the second consecutive week, finishing 28th, averaging 3.679 million viewers.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of 12 CBS scripted programs, its news magazine “60 Minutes” and the season premiere of the alternative program “Survivor”; three NBC scripted programs and the alternative program “America’s Got Talent: All-Stars”; and the ABC alternative programs “American Idol” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Each of the top four prime-time cable programs were editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” topped by the Thursday broadcast, which averaged 3.346 million viewers, 33rd overall.

📺BROADCAST TV EVENING NEWS

David Muir, Norah O'Donnell, Lester Holt

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the top-rated evening newscast, reports TV Newser. With its week of February 27, 2023 win, ABC News’ evening offering has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 222 of the past 223 weeks in average total viewers—and 151 of the last 153 weeks among adults 25-54. It also finished the week as U.S. TV’s most-watched show across broadcast and cable — marking three consecutive weeks at No. 1 in average total viewers. According to live plus same day data from Nielsen, World News Tonight posted week to week gains. The newscast averaged more than 8.36 million total linear viewers for the week of Feb. 27, a +1% gain from the previous week. 

After a strong ratings week of Feb. 20, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt fell back to Earth a bit. The newscast averaged 7.07 million total viewers on linear this past week, making it the third-most-watched regularly-scheduled show of the week—excluding sports, specials and syndication. The 7.07 million  average happens to represent a -4% loss from what the newscast averaged the previous week. 

The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.115 million total viewers this past week, a +1% improvement from the previous week and +1% vs. the year-ago week. However, the newscast continues to struggle with adults 25-54, averaging 753,000 this past week — a -3% decline from the week prior and a -8% from the year-ago week.

📺LATE NIGHT TV

Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN

📺CABLE TV

Fox News Channel won the prime-time cable network race for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 2.059 million viewers. ESPN was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 1.267 million. MSNBC finished third for the third consecutive week following a second-place finish, averaging 1.096 million.

The cable top 20 consisted of 14 Fox News Channel weeknight talk shows (five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and four of “The Ingraham Angle”); History’s “The Curse of Oak Island”; the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; ESPN’s coverage of the New York Knicks’ 131-129 double-overtime victory over the Boston Celtics Sunday; and all three hour-long segments of the USA Network professional wrestling program “WWE Raw.”

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

In terms of individual programming, The Five remained the most-watched cable news show, drawing an average of 3.125 million viewers at 5 p.m. during the week of Feb. 27. Tucker Carlson Tonight followed with a 3.045 million total viewers average at 8 p.m. Jesse Watters Primetime (2.81 million at 7 p.m.), Hannity (2.465 million at 9 p.m.), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.30 million at 6 p.m.) rounding out the top five.

TV Newser reports Fox News had the 12-most-watched cable news shows, 13 of the top 15, and 86 of the 100 most-watched telecasts for the week. MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell ranks No. 12 for the second consecutive week with 1.4 million at 10 p.m., and Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace returned to No. 15 with 1.33 million from 4-6 p.m. Additionally, Fox News had the top 15 cable news shows of the week among Adults 25-54.

📺STREAMING TV

The third season of “Outer Banks” was Netflix’s most-streamed program for the second consecutive week, with viewers watching the 10 episodes of the adventure drama for 99 million hours during the first full week they were available, 36.1% less than the 154.97 million hours watched the previous week when they were available for four days, according to figures released by the streaming service.

“We Have a Ghost” was Netflix’s most popular movie for the second consecutive week, with viewers watching the horror comedy for 42.62 million hours in its first full week of release, 5.3% more than then 40.47 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days.