The Thursday episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show” drew the largest audience for a regularly scheduled program in the history of MSNBC, which began broadcasting in 1996, and was among three prime-time programs last week to average more than 5 million viewers, according to figures released by Nielsen today.
Maddow’s hourlong interview of Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump who wrote a book critical of him, averaged 5.239 million viewers. The only other prime-time television programs to average more than 5 million viewers between July 13 and Sunday were NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” which averaged 7.632 million viewers, and a rerun of the CBS action drama “NCIS,” which averaged 5.036 million.
It was the first time an original “America’s Got Talent” episode had averaged under 8 million viewers among its seven episodes this summer. An “America’s Got Talent” episode has been the week’s most-watched entertainment program every week an original episode has aired since its 2016 season premiere.
The premiere of the ABC comedy “United We Fall” was seventh for the week, averaging 4.235 million viewers, the most among programs airing on July 15. The week’s only ABC program to average more was a rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” sixth for the week, averaging 4.259 million.
CBS had three of the week’s top five programs to finish first in the network race for the second consecutive week, 20th time in 25 weeks and 25th in the 43-week-old 2019-20 season, averaging 3.19 million viewers.
NBC was second, averaging 2.98 million, followed by Fox News Channel (2.938 million) and ABC (2.83 million).
Fox was ninth overall for the second consecutive week, trailing four cable networks and the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, averaging 1.25 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox’s most-watched program for the second consecutive week was a rerun of the procedural drama “9-1-1: Lone Star,” 50th among broadcast programs, averaging 2.282 million viewers. Its overall rank was not available.
CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
With less first-run programming because of the coronavirus pandemdic, the combined four-network viewership was down 8.5% from the corresponding week one year ago. Fox viewership was down 29%, NBC’s 13.2% and ABC’s 12.7 % while CBS’ was up 10.4%.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the 26th consecutive week, averaging 2.983 million viewers, despite Tucker Carlson hosting his show just once because of what he described as a pre-planned vacation. The week’s only episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” he hosted averaged 4.003 million viewers, second among cable programs and 10th overall.
MSNBC was second among cable networks for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 2.034 million viewers. CNN was third for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 1.587 million and HGTV fourth, averaging 1.288 million.
An episode of the Univision telenovela “Amor eterno” was the most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program for the 16th consecutive week, with the Monday episode averaging 2.285 million viewers, 49th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 33rd consecutive week and 35th time in 36 weeks, averaging 1.36 million viewers.
Telemundo was second, averaging 820,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (410,000), Estrella TV (150,000) and Azteca America (40,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 33rd consecutive week, the 84th time in 85 weeks and the 136th time in 138 weeks, averaging 8.858 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.641 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 5.171 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; the Thursday broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show”; reruns of CBS’ “`NCIS,” “60 Minutes” and “FBI”; a rerun of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and the premiere of “United We Fall”; a rerun of CBS’ “Young Sheldon”; a rerun of ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud”; the July 13 broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News Channel.