Relatively speaking, viewers flocked to both the premieres of Fox’s “The Masked Singer” and NBC’s “The Titan Games” last week, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
“The Masked Singer” drew the largest audience for the premiere of an alternative series since NBC’s “World of Dance” on May 30, 2017, averaging 9.368 million viewers.
That distinction only lasted until Monday when NBC’s “America’s Got Talent: The Champions,” averaged 9.962 million viewers for its premiere.
“The Masked Singer” was Wednesday’s most-watched program and ninth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Dec. 31 and Sunday.
“The Titan Games” was NBC’s most-watched program in its Thursday 8-10 p.m. time slot, outside of sports, since July 13, 2017, averaging 6.506 million viewers, 14th for the week, giving NBC a second-place finish in its time slot.
With Saturday’s Dallas Cowboys-Seattle Seahawks NFL playoff game averaging the largest audience for any prime-time program during the 15-week-old 2018-19 television season, 29.37 million viewers, Fox was the week’s most-watched network, averaging 7.94 million viewers for its 16 hours of programming.
NBC was second, averaging 7.37 million, followed by CBS, which averaged 5.647 million, and ABC, which averaged 4.052 million.
NBC broadcast 21 hours, 53 minutes of prime-time programming for ratings purposes and CBS and ABC 22 hours each.
NBC’s coverage of the Golden Globe Awards was the week’s most-watched non-sports program, averaging 18.61 million viewers, third for the week. Viewership dropped 2 percent from the 2018 ceremony, which averaged 19.007 million viewers.
The Golden Globe Awards benefited from the hourlong runover of NBC’s coverage of the Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles NFL playoff game into prime time which preceded it and averaged 42.01 million viewers. The 2018 ceremony did not follow an NFL game.
The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in the network weekly average.
CBS’ most-watched program was “The Big Bang Theory,” which averaged 12.796 million viewers, sixth for the week, averaging 12.796 million viewers.
ABC’s most-watched program was the 10-11 p.m. segment of “Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” which averaged 11.531 million viewers, ninth overall, third among entertainment programs and first among New Year’s Eve specials.
The week’s most-watched cable program was ESPN’s six-minute Sugar Bowl pregame show which averaged 15.018 million viewers, fourth for the week. The Sugar Bowl game between Georgia and Texas was fifth for the week, averaging 13.124 million viewers.
ESPN was the most-watched cable network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 3.476 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second, averaging 1.588 million viewers, and MSNBC third, averaging 1.541 million.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was the season premiere of the Univision dance competition “Mira Quien Baila” which averaged 1.877 million viewers, 78th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 1.36 million viewers. Telemundo finished second, averaging 910,000 viewers, followed by UniMas, which averaged 330,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 250,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 80000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the sixth consecutive week and 57th time in the past 58 weeks, averaging 9.375 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 8.865 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” averaged 6.293 million viewers. It has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25-29, 2006.
Viewership for all three newscasts are based on their Wednesday through Friday broadcasts.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were Fox’s coverage of the Dallas-Seattle NFL playoff game and its six-minute pregame show; NBC’s coverage of the Golden Globe Awards; ESPN’s six-minute Sugar Bowl pregame show and the Sugar Bowl; CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory”; the 10-11 p.m. segment of ABC’s “Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”; CBS’ “Young Sheldon”; Fox’s “The Masked Singer”; and CBS’ “Blue Bloods.”