CBS was the week’s most-watched network for the 12th time in the 17-week-old prime-time television season, despite NBC’s near-record viewership for its NFL coverage.
CBS had each of the four most-watched entertainment programs and the 11 most-watched scripted series between Jan. 11 and Sunday, averaging 10.56 million viewers, according to live-plus-same day figures released by Nielsen Wednesday.
In a week when the Tuesday schedule was altered because of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, NBC was second, averaging 9.63 million, followed by Fox, which averaged 4.19 million, and ABC, which averaged 3.87 million, fourth among the broadcast networks and fifth overall behind the cable all-sports network ESPN.
CBS’ most-watched program was the news magazine “60 Minutes,” which averaged 20.62 million viewers, fifth overall, behind two football games and NFL pregame and postgame shows.
“60 Minutes” benefited from a 56-minute runover of CBS’ coverage of the Denver-Pittsburgh NFL playoff game, which ended six minutes before the start of “60 Minutes” in the Eastern and Central time zones.
The runover averaged 48.91 million viewers. The runover is not considered a separate program, but is included in the weekly average.
CBS’ most-watched entertainment program was the comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” sixth overall averaging 15.75 million viewers, the only entertainment program averaging more than 12 million viewers.
The week’s most-watched program was NBC’s coverage of Saturday’s overtime Arizona-Green Bay NFL divisional playoff game, which averaged 33.73 million viewers. The audience was the second-largest for a Saturday prime-time NFL divisional playoff game, trailing only the Jan. 14, 2012, game between Denver and New England that averaged 34.2 million viewers on CBS.
The NFL has been playing divisional playoff games in prime time on Saturdays since the 2001 season.
The audience was the largest for a prime-time program this season. The season’s largest audience for a prime-time program before last week was 31.23 million for CBS’ coverage of the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh wild card round NFL playoff game on Jan. 9.
NBC’s most-watched entertainment program was “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which was 24th among the week’s prime-time programs, averaging 8.01 million viewers.
The week’s only premiere on the four major broadcast networks, the Fox science fiction drama “Second Chance,” averaged 4.71 million viewers, fourth in its Wednesday 9-10 p.m. time slot and 53rd for the week.
NBC finished first among viewers ages 18-49 for the 15th time this season. This is the first time a network finished first among the group NBC, ABC and Fox target and advertisers pay a premium to reach, at least 15 times in the season’s first 17 weeks since NBC accomplished the feat in the 1997-98 season, the last season its schedule included the classic comedy “Seinfeld.”
NBC aired 20 hours, 42 minutes of prime-time programming for ratings purposes, CBS 20 hours, 38 minutes, ABC 20 hours, 37 minutes, Fox 14 hours and ESPN 22.
The week’s most-watched cable program was ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff championship game, which averaged 25.67 million viewers, third for the week. Alabama’s 45-40 victory over Clemson Jan. 11 was the sixth most-watched program in cable television history.
Viewership dropped 23.1 percent from last year’s inaugural College Football Playoff championship game, which averaged 33.4 million viewers, the most for any cable television program.
The Republican presidential debate last Thursday on Fox Business Network averaged 11.09 million viewers, second among prime-time cable programs and ninth overall, topping Sunday’s Democratic presidential debate on NBC, which averaged 10.16 million viewers, 12th for the week.
The most-watched Spanish-language program was the Monday episode of the Univision telenovela, “Yo No Cred en Los Hombres,” which averaged 3.04 million viewers, tying for 89th overall.
As usual, Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 2.18 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.55 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 640,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 200,000, Azteca America, which averaged 160,000, and MundoMax, which averaged 120,000.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was the most-watched network nightly newscast, after finishing second behind ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” for two consecutive weeks, averaging 9.4 million viewers. “World News Tonight with David Muir” was second, averaging 9.28 million.
The “CBS Evening News” was third, as it has been throughout Scott Pelley’s tenure as anchor, averaging 7.82 million.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s coverage of the Arizona-Green Bay NFL playoff game; CBS’ six-minute Sunday NFL postgame show; ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff championship game, NBC’s nine-minute NFL kickoff show; CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the 8 p.m. Thursday episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” 21-minute Saturday NFL postgame and “Madam Secretary”; Fox Business Network’s Republican presidential debate; and a rerun of CBS’ “NCIS.”
—City News Service