In a week CBS aired reruns of television’s three most-watched entertainment series — “The Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS” and “Young Sheldon” — the two episodes of the NBC singing competition “The Voice” were the only entertainment programs to average more than 9 million viewers, according to figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The Nov. 27 hourlong top 11 elimination episode of “The Voice” was the most-watched entertainment program between Nov. 26 and Sunday, averaging 9.574 million viewers, ninth overall, according to live-plus-same-day figures.
The Nov. 26 two-hour performance episode was 10th for the week averaging 9.382 million viewers.
The “This Is Us” fall finale which followed the Nov. 27 episode of “The Voice” was the week’s most-watched scripted program, averaging 8.993 million viewers, 11th overall.
The week’s most-watched program was Fox’s “Thursday Night Football,” which averaged 21.394 million viewers, the largest audience since its move to broadcast television in 2014, for the Dallas Cowboys 13-10 upset of the New Orleans Saints.
Although they are played on Thursdays, the season-opening NFL Kickoff Game and Thanksgiving night games are not part of the “Thursday Night Football” package.
NFL programming has been the most-watched program for 12 of the 13 weeks of the NFL season, with the exception coming when Fox aired baseball’s World Series.
The Los Angeles Chargers come-from-behind 33-30 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the franchise’s first appearance on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” since 2014 was second for the week, averaging 17.83 million viewers.
A week after a fourth-place finish when it had no prime-time NFL programming, Fox was first for the week thanks to the record “Thursday Night Football” audience, an hour of NFL programming Sunday and Saturday’s Big Ten title game, averaging 8.28 million for its 18 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox was also bolstered by the 28-minute runover of its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones which averaged 23.387 million viewers. The runover is not considered a separate program, but is included in the weekly average.
Fox’s 32-minute NFL postgame show “The OT” which followed averaged 10.101 million viewers, sixth for the week behind “Thursday Night Football,” “Sunday Night Football” and their pregame shows.
Fox’s coverage of Saturday’s Big Ten title game was 12th for the week, averaging 8.659 million viewers.
Fox’s most-watched program outside its football coverage was the procedural drama “9-1-1,” 30th for the week, averaging 6.154 million viewers.
NBC averaged 6.89 million viewers to finish second, after three consecutive victories.
CBS was third, averaging 6.19 million viewers. Its most-watched show was the news magazine “60 Minutes,” fifth for the week, averaging 10.41 million viewers, only trailing NFL programming.
ABC was fourth, averaging 4.11 million viewers. Its most-watched program was “The Conners,” 23rd for the week, averaging 7.319 million.
NBC broadcast 21 1/2 hours of prime-time programming for ratings purposes, CBS and ABC 22 each.
The week’s most-watched cable program was ESPN’s Nov. 26 “Monday Night Football” game between the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans which averaged 9.86 million viewers, eighth for the week.
A “Monday Night Football” game has been the most-watched cable program each week of the NFL season.
Hallmark Channel edged ESPN, 2.108 million – 2.107 million to be the most-watched cable network. Fox News Channel was third, averaging 2.012 million viewers.
The Univision beauty pageant “Nuestra Belleza Latina” was the most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.249 million viewers, 83rd among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 1.51 million viewers. Telemundo finished second, averaging 1.15 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 340,000 viewers, Estrella TV, which averaged 270,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 100,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” returned to top among the network nightly newscasts, one week after the “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” ended its 51-week winning streak. “World News Toinght,” averaged 9.146 million viewers, “NBC Nightly News” 9.01 million.
The “CBS Evening News” averaged 6.403 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 Fox’s “Thursday Night Football”; NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; the 18-minute “Thursday Night Football” pregame show; the 11-minute “Sunday Night Football” pregame show; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; Fox’s 32-minute Sunday NFL postgame show “The OT”; CBS’ 19-minute Southeastern Conference title game postgame show; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; and the Tuesday and Monday episodes of NBC’s “The Voice.”
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