NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the most-watched prime-time television program for the third consecutive week while CBS finished first among the networks for the third consecutive week, according to figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
“America’s Got Talent” averaged 11.298 million viewers, the only prime-time program to average more than 8 million viewers between June 25 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures.
“America’s Got Talent” was also first among viewers ages 2-11, 12-17, 18-49, 25-54 and 50-and-older for the third consecutive week. It tied the ABC dating series “The Bachelorette” as the highest-rated program among viewers ages 18-34 after finishing first among the group for the previous two weeks.
“America’s Got Talent” has been the most-watched entertainment program every week an original episode has aired this summer and last summer and is television’s most-watched alternative series.
CBS edged NBC, 4.32 million viewers-4.24 million, to finish first for the week. CBS got a 2-3 finish by repeats of the news magazine “60 Minutes” and the comedy “The Big Bang Theory” and had 10 of the week’s 14 most-watched programs.
The first three episodes of “Big Brother” were 11th, 12th and 13th for the week, averaging 5.341 million, 5.141 million and 4.784 million viewers. Each episode of “Big Brother” won its time slot.
ABC averaged 3.4 million viewers to finish third for the third consecutive week after back-to-back victories when it aired the NBA Finals. Its most-watched program was “The Bachelorette,” seventh for the week, averaging 5.79 million viewers.
Fox finished fourth among the major broadcast networks for the 23rd consecutive week, averaging 2.17 million viewers for its 16 hours, 37 minutes of prime-time programming. Its most-watched program was “MasterChef,” 28th for the week, averaging 3.809 million viewers.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 2.602 million viewers.
MSNBC was second, averaging 1.503 million viewers and HGTV third, averaging 1.44 million.
Fox News Channel had each of the 12 most-watched cable programs, topped by three episodes of the opinion talk show “Hannity.” The Wednesday edition of “Hannity” was the week’s most-watched cable program, averaging 4.083 million viewers, 23rd overall.
CBS, NBC, ABC and each of the top three cable networks all aired 22 hours of programming for ratings purposes.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was the Wednesday episode of the Univision drama anthology “La Rosa de Guadalupe” which averaged 2.128 million viewers to finish 89th overall.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 34th consecutive week, averaging 1.52 million viewers. Telemundo averaged 1.16 million viewers to finish second for the 34th consecutive week after four consecutive first-place finishes.
UniMas was third, averaging 420,000 viewers, followed by Estrella TV, which averaged 270,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 110,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 31st consecutive week and 42nd of past 43, averaging 7.814 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.198 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” averaged 5.491 million viewers. It has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25-29, 2006.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes” and the 8:30 p.m. Thursday rerun of “The Big Bang Theory”; NBC’s “World of Dance”; the 8 p.m. Thursday rerun of “The Big Bang Theory”; ABC’s “The Bachlorette”; CBS’ “Code Black,” “NCIS” and “Blue Bloods.”
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