TV Ratings: CBS and '60 Minutes' Tops For The Week

CBS had seven of the eight highest-rated programs for the week, led by “60 Minutes,” to finish first in the network race for the fifth consecutive week, eighth time in nine weeks and 10th time in 12 weeks. The first-place finish was the third for “60 Minutes” in the last five weeks. CBS’ coverage of the NCAA men’s Final Four accounted for the other two first-place finishes during that span.

For a broadcast consisting of an interview with author David Grann and a double-length segment on Google’s advancements in artificial intelligence, “60 Minutes” averaged 7.376 million viewers. It was the only prime-time program between April 10 and Sunday to average more than 7 million viewers, according to The L-A Times citing live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

CBS had five of the six other programs to top 6 million viewers — “Young Sheldon” (6.883 million), “FBI” (6.837 million), “NCIS” (6.832 million), “The Equalizer” (6.527 million) and “Ghosts” (6.257 million) — and averaged 4.5 million viewers for the week.

ABC’s coverage of the Sacramento Kings’ 126-123 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of their NBA Western Conference first-round series Saturday, which averaged 6.257 million viewers, had the biggest audience of any program not on CBS, tying the supernatural comedy “Ghosts” for sixth. The game had the biggest audience for any Saturday night NBA opening playoff game on ABC.

NBA playoffs coverage enabled ABC to end its four-week post-Oscars streak of third-place finishes among the broadcast networks as it landed in second, averaging 3.44 million viewers. Its top-ranked non-NBA program was the Sunday edition of “American Idol,” ninth for the week, averaging 5.35 million viewers.

NBC dropped to third following four consecutive second-place finishes, averaging 2.5 million viewers for a schedule that included a recap show of “The Voice” and reruns of its three Chicago series and three “Law & Order” series. “The Voice” was NBC’s ratings leader, averaging 4.022 million viewers, 22nd among the week’s broadcast and cable programs.

Fox averaged 1.82 million viewers for its programming. The procedural drama “9-1-1” was its top show, averaging 4.477 million viewers, 19th for the week. Each of the four original episodes of “9-1-1” to air in 2023 have led Fox’s rankings.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of “60 Minutes”; 12 CBS scripted programs and its alternative series “Survivor”; three ABC alternative programs — the April 10 and Sunday editions of “American Idol” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; two NBA playoff games — one each on ABC and TNT; and Fox’s “9-1-1.”

📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS    

Week of April 10, 2023 evening news ratings trended poorly on a week-to-week and on a year-over-year basis, reports TV Newser.  This isn’t completely surprising considering the previous week (April 3, 2023) featured coverage of the Trump arrest and arraignment, while the comparable week in 2022 featured coverage of the Brooklyn subway attack.

Despite the drop off for ABC, NBC and CBS’ evening offerings, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remains No. 1 in the genre, averaging 7.58 million total viewers and 1.12 million A25-54 viewers this past week, as per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.

📺LATE NIGHT TV

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📺CABLE TV

The top-ranked cable program was TNT’s coverage of the Clippers’ 115-110 victory over the Phoenix Suns in Game 1 of their NBA Western Conference first-round series Sunday, which averaged 5.035 million viewers, 12th overall.

Fox News Channel won the cable network race for the third consecutive week and 11th time in 12 weeks, averaging 2.09 million viewers. TNT was second, averaging 1.711 million, and MSNBC third, averaging 1.252 million. ESPN was the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.155 million.

The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of four NBA playoff games on TNT; four NBA Play-In Tournament games, two each on ESPN and TNT; 10 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” four of “Hannity” and one of “The Ingraham Angle”); History’s “The Curse of Oak Island”; and the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

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In terms of individual programming, Tucker Carlson Tonight marked its sixth consecutive week as cable news’ most-watched show, averaging 3.39 million total viewers at 8 p.m. this past week.

TV Newser reports The Five came in second with an average of 3.015 million viewers at 5 p.m., followed by Hannity in third place with a 2.61 million viewer average at 9 p.m., Jesse Watters Primetime took fourth place by averaging 2.595 million total viewers at 7 p.m., with Special Report with Bret Baier rounding out cable news’ top five with a 2.18 million total viewer average at 6 p.m.

Fox News had the eight most-watched cable news shows of the week, and 10 of the top 15.

Alex Wagner Tonight was the most-watched non-Fox News offering of the week, taking eighth place among total viewers with a 1.59 million viewer average at 9 p.m.

MSNBC’s Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace was the most-watched cable news offering at 4 p.m. with 1.52 million viewers from 4-6 p.m. (No. 11 overall).

Tucker Carlson Tonight continues to draw the most Adults 25-54 on cable news, as the network’s 8 p.m. hour averaged 419,000 viewers from the measurement this past week. The Five came in second with 344,000 A25-54 viewers on average at 5 p.m. Gutfeld! secured third place in the A25-54 demo (294,000), with Jesse Watters Primetime (291,000 at 7 p.m.) and Hannity (295,000 at 9 p.m.) rounding out the top five in the ad-friendly measurement.

Fox News had the top 11 cable news shows among Adults 25-54. Alex Wagner Tonight took 11th in the demo (181,000).

📺STREAMING TV

“The Night Agent” was Netflix’s most-streamed title for the fourth consecutive week, with viewers watching the 10-episode action thriller for 90.04 million hours in the third full week it was available, increasing its total since release to 605.62 million hours, sixth on the all-time list, which is based on viewership during the first 28 days of release.

The Thai film “Hunger,” about a private chef team, was Netflix’s most popular movie, despite not being available in the United States, with 43.58 million viewing hours in its first full week of release.

Netflix’s top English-language film was “The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die,” with viewers watching the action-adventure film based on the series “The Last Kingdom” for 35.5 million hours in its first three days of release.