CBS had five of last week’s six most-watched shows to finish first in the prime-time television ratings for the third time in the three-week-old 2017-18 season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.
CBS averaged 8.91 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Oct. 9 and Sunday. The order of finish among the four major broadcast networks has been the same each week of the season. NBC was second, averaging 7.25 million, followed by ABC, which averaged 4.74 million, and Fox, which averaged 2.9 million.
Viewership was down for all three networks from the third week of the 2016- 17 season. CBS was down 7 percent, NBC 0.7 percent, ABC 22.2 percent and Fox 15.5 percent.
Live-plus-same-day viewership has dropped for years as viewership of programming viewed on video recorders and streamed has increased.
NFL programming accounted for each of the week’s three most-watched programs.
CBS’ seven-minute NFL postgame show finished first, averaging 16.575 million viewers, followed by NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the New York Giants and Denver Broncos, which averaged 16.158 million viewers, and CBS’ “Thursday Night Football” game between the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles which averaged 14.585 million.
CBS received a third boost from football as the 23-minute runover of its afternoon NFL coverage into prime time averaged 25.45 million viewers. The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average. The most-watched entertainment program was CBS’ NCIS, which averaged 13.606 million to finish fourth overall. CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” was the most-watched comedy, averaging 13.14 million, sixth overall. The ABC medical drama “The Good Doctor” was the most-watched new series for the second consecutive week, averaging 10.693 million viewers, 12th overall. “The Good Doctor” retained 98.2 percent of its average viewership of 10.884 million viewers for the previous week’s episode.
NBC finished first among viewers ages 18-49 for the third time in the three-week-old season, averaging 2.38 million viewers among the group targeted by NBC, ABC and Fox and coveted by advertisers.
CBS was second, averaging 2.15 million among the group, ABC third, averaging 1.34 million and Fox fourth among the major broadcast networks, averaging 1.64 million.
Just as it had a week earlier, NFL programming account for each of the week’s five most-watched programs among the group — “Sunday Night Football” (7.194 million); CBS’ seven-minute NFL postgame show (6.139 million); “Thursday Night Football” (5.921 million); the nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show (5.020 million); and ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings (4.828 million).
“The Big Bang Theory” was the most-watched entertainment program among the group, averaging 3.731 million viewers, sixth overall, followed by the NBC drama “This Is Us” averaging 3.626 million viewers, seventh overall
Coverage of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs made TBS the most-watched cable network, averaging 3.54 million viewers.
Fox Sports 1, which is carrying the American League Championship Series, was second, averaging 2.923 million. ESPN averaged 2.625 million to finish third after finishing first for four consecutive weeks.
Figures for TBS and ESPN are based on all 22 hours of prime-time programming. The average for Fox Sports 1 is based on the nightly averages from 8-11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The figure including 7-8 p.m. EDT Sunday was not available.
The week’s most-watched cable program was ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings which averaged 10.356 million viewers, 13th overall.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Univision’s coverage of the Mexico-Honduras 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier, which averaged 2.202 million viewers Friday to finish 125th overall.
Telemundo was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 1.57 million viewers. Univision was second, averaging 1.49 million viewers, after finishing first the previous week.
UniMas was third, averaging 660,000 viewers, followed by Estrella TV, which averaged 250,000 and Azteca America, which averaged 90,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly network newscast for the sixth consecutive week and 18th time in the past 19 weeks, averaging 8.651 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 8.149 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” was third, averaging 6.267 million viewers for its Monday through Wednesday and Friday newscasts.
The Thursday newscast was not included in the weekly average because of pre-emptions and schedule changes because of “Thursday Night Football.” The “CBS Evening News” has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25- 29, 2006.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ seven-minute NFL postgame show; NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; CBS’ “Thursday Night Football,” “NCIS,” “60 Minutes” and “The Big Bang Theory”‘; NBC’s nine- minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show; CBS’ “Bull”; the Tuesday edition of NBC’s “The Voice” and “This Is Us.”
—City News Service