TV Ratings: The Coronation Had The Big Audience

ABC’s coverage of Game 3 of the Lakers-Golden State Warriors Western Conference semifinal series was the week’s top-ranked program and drew the largest audience for an NBA conference semifinal game since 2011. The Lakers’ 127-97 victory Saturday averaged 8.373 million viewers, the most for a Game 3 of a conference semifinal series since 1999, according to The L-A Times citing  live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.

The first two games were second and third in prime-time ratings. TNT’s coverage of the Lakers’ 117-112 victory in Game 1, Tuesday, averaged 7.365 million viewers, the most for a Game 1 of a conference semifinal series in the history of cable television, second among prime-time programs airing between May 1 and Sunday and first among cable programs, despite starting at 10:13 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

ESPN’s coverage of Golden State’s 127-100 victory in Game 2, Thursday, averaged 7.352 million viewers, third for the week and second among cable programs.

Nielsen estimates that the Coronation of King Charles III, airing on 11 networks beginning at 2 a.m. Saturday and continuing into the early morning, had an audience of 10.3 million viewers in the U.S. This was a larger audience than all prime-time programs for the week. Compared to historical Television viewing of other notable British royal events the audience was smaller than:

• Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, Sept. 19, 2023: 11,363,000
• Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding, April 29, 2011: 22,766,000
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding, May 19, 2018: 29,185,000
• Princess Diana’s funeral, Sept. 6, 1997: 33,252,000

According to TVNewser,  Saturday, May 6, 2023, ABC News ranked No. 1 in the key target measurements: Total Viewers (3.04 million) and Adults 25-54 (688,000) making it the No. 1 U.S. network for coronation coverage from 6-10 a.m. ET across both broadcast and cable. ABC’s live coronation coverage out-delivered live coronation coverage on NBC (2.72 million, 538,000 respectively) and CBS (1.58 million, and 276,000 respectively).

On the cable side, CNN averaged 972,000 total viewers and 173,000 Adults 25-54; Fox News averaged 1.60 million total viewers and 160,000 Adults 25-54; MSNBC averaged 694,000 total viewers and 77,000 Adults 25-54.

CBS had each of the week’s five top non-sports programs to be the win the network battle for the eighth consecutive week, the 11th time in 12 weeks and 13th time in the last 15, averaging 4.39 million viewers.

“60 Minutes” was CBS’ ratings leader, averaging 7.234 million viewers, fourth for the week and first among non-sports programs. “Young Sheldon” was the top entertainment program, averaging 7.137 million viewers, fifth for the week and second among non-sports programs.

The only times CBS has not finished first in the last 15 weeks were the weeks of Feb. 6-13, when Fox aired Super Bowl LVII, and March 6-12, when ABC aired the Oscars.

ABC was second for the fourth consecutive week following four consecutive third-place finishes, averaging 4.12 million viewers. Its most popular non-sports program was “American Idol,” ninth for the week and sixth among non-sports programs, averaging 6.115 million viewers.

NBC was third among the broadcast networks for the fourth consecutive week after four consecutive second-place finishes, averaging 2.94 million viewers. “Chicago Fire” was its ratings leader, averaging 6.093 million viewers, 10th for the week and seventh among non-sports programs.

Fox averaged 1.99 million viewers for its 15 hours. The procedural drama “9-1-1” topped its ratings, averaging 4.174 million viewers, 36th for the week and 25th among non-sports programming. Each of the seven original episodes of “9-1-1” to air in 2023 have been at the top Fox’s prime-time programming each week.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of four NBA playoff games — two on ESPN and one each on ABC and TNT; eight CBS scripted programs, its news magazine “60 Minutes” and alternative series “Survivor”; the two editions of “American Idol” on ABC; NBC’s three “Chicago” series and its singing competition “The Voice.”

📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS

ABC's David Muir, CBS' Norah O'Donnell, NBC's Lester Holt

During the week of May 1, 2023, ABC, NBC and CBS’ evening news offerings all shed viewers from the previous week. Nevertheless, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remains No. 1 in the genre, averaging 7.61 million total viewers and 1.12 million A25-54 viewers for the week, per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.

WNT marked its sixth consecutive week as the most-watched regularly-scheduled U.S. show across broadcast and cable (excluding sports), and has now defeated its evening news competition from NBC and CBS 231 of the past 232 weeks in average total viewers—and 160 of the last 162 weeks among Adults 25-54.

📺CABLE TV

NBA playoff coverage gave TNT the week’s top spot among cable networks for the third consecutive week, averaging 3.166 million viewers. ESPN was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.462 million.

Fox News Channel’s viewership increased 1.3% to 1.468 million viewers from 1.449 million the previous week when its viewership was down 28.7% from its 2.058 million average in Tucker Carlson’s final week.

With Tucker Carlson now gone from Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour, the network’s margin of victory in primetime is tight. In fact, the show temporarily replacing Tucker Carlson Tonight, named Fox News Tonight, averaged the same number of Adults 25-54 as fellow 8 p.m. cable news offering All In with Chris Hayes (142,000 viewers apiece). Fox did average the largest total audience at 8 p.m., beating All In to the tune of 1.51 million to 1.3 million. Lawrence Jones guest-hosted the timeslot, and Kayleigh McEnany is guest-hosting the hour this week.

Fox News Channel was third among all cable networks for the second consecutive week, while leading both rival cable news networks for the 116th consecutive week. MSNBC finished fourth among cable networks, averaging 1.155 million viewers and CNN was 13th, averaging 494,000 viewers.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of nine NBA playoff games — six on TNT and three on ESPN; three NBA studio shows — two on TNT and one on ESPN; History’s “The Curse of Oak Island”; the MSNBC news and opinion program, “The Rachel Maddow Show”; ESPN’s coverage of Game 7 of the New Jersey Devils-New York Rangers NHL first-round playoff series; three editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Hannity”; and the first two hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling show, “WWE Raw.”

📺STREAMING TV

The “Bridgerton” prequel, “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” was Netflix’s most-streamed title with 148.28 million hours watched of its six episodes in their first four days of release.

The French action-thriller “AKA” was Netflix’s most popular movie for the second consecutive week with 49.32 million viewing hours, 51.6% more than the 32.53 million viewing hours the previous week when it was available for three days.