ABC’s re-creation of original episodes of the 1970s hit CBS comedies “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” accounted for two of last week’s five most-watched prime-time programs, according to figures released Wednesday.
The 93-minute-long “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s `All in the Family’ and `The Jeffersons,”’ averaged 10.374 million viewers, second among prime-time programs airing between May 20 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.
The 27-minute ABC News special that followed, “All About `All in the Family’ and `The Jeffersons”’ was fifth for the week, averaging 7.669 million viewers.
In a week that mixed the final three days of the official 2018-19 prime-time television season with the first four days of its summer season, the only other program to top 8 million viewers was the season finale of the CBS action drama “NCIS,” which averaged 11.967 million viewers.
Cable coverage of the NBA’s conference finals accounted for three of the week’s top 10 programs, topped by ESPN’s telecast of the Golden State Warriors’ 119-117 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on May 20 to complete a four-game sweep of the Western Conference finals which averaged 7.989 million viewers, third for the week and first among cable programs.
ABC’s third most-watched program for the week also had a 1970s connection. The two-hour ABC News documentary “This Is Farrah Fawcett” on the late actress who rocketed to fame in 1976 with the debut of “Charlie’s Angels” was 12th for the week, ninth among non-sports programs, averaging 5.819 million viewers.
The week’s only premiere, the CBS globetrotting action-adventure drama “Blood & Treasure,” was second in its 9-11 p.m. time slot May 21 and 14th for the week, 11th among non-sports programs, averaging 5.616 million viewers. “Blood & Treasure” retained 48.6 percent of the audience of “NCIS” that preceded it.
NBC had five of the week’s nine most-watched programs to edge CBS, 4.35 million-4.33 million, to end CBS’ 12-week streak as the most-watched network. ABC was third, averaging 3.87 million.
NBC’s most-watched program was the season’s next-to-last episode of the singing competition “The Voice,” which averaged 7.967 million viewers May 20, fourth for the week and third among non-sports programming.
The episode was the series’ most-watched since April 1.
“The Voice’s” season finale May 21 was eighth for the week and seventh among non-sports programming, averaging 7.43 million viewers, a record low for a finale of “The Voice” and a 15.53 percent drop in official viewership from the 2018 spring finale which averaged 8.776 million viewers, the previous low.
Official viewership for most forms of programming is down compared to the past primarily due to increased viewership of streaming programming, including the same programs shown on traditional television.
Fox was fourth among the broadcast networks for the 19th consecutive week, averaging 2.5 million viewers for its 16 hours, 47 minutes of programming. Fox also trailed cable’s TNT.
Fox’s most-watched show was “MasterChef Junior,” 56th for the week, averaging 2.766 million viewers.
NBC, CBS and ABC each broadcast 22 hours of prime-time programming for ratings purposes.
TNT was the most-watched cable network in prime time, thanks to airing three Eastern Conference finals games, averaging 2.569 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second, averaging 2.301 million. MSNBC was third, averaging 1.615 million.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Univision’s coverage of the second and final leg of soccer’s Clausura 2019 Liga MX championship stage finals which averaged 1.966 million viewers, 59th among the week’s broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the second consecutive week after four straight second-place finishes, averaging 1.26 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.13 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 390,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 230,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 60,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 26th consecutive week and 77th time in the past 78 weeks, averaging 8.063 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.217 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” averaged 5.434 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 CBS’ “NCIS”; ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s `All in the Family’ and `The Jeffersons”’; ESPN’s coverage of Game 4 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals; the Monday edition of NBC’s “The Voice”; ABC’s “All About `All in the Family’ and `The Jeffersons”’; NBC’s “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire,” the Tuesday edition of “The Voice” and “Chicago P.D.”; and TNT’s coverage of Game 6 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.