The 72nd Emmy Awards weren’t even the week’s most-watched prime-time program on ABC or the top awards show, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars” was ABC’s most-watched program between Sept. 14 and Sunday, averaging 8.132 million viewers, seventh for the week, second among non-NFL programming and first in entertainment programming
CBS’ coverage of the 55th Academy of County Music Awards averaged 6.835 million viewers, ninth for the week, third among non-NFL programming and second in entertainment programming.
The Emmy Awards averaged a record-low 6.36 million viewers, 11th for week, fourth among non-NFL programming and third in entertainment programming.
For the second time in the two-week old NFL season, “60 Minutes” was the week’s most-watched non-NFL program, averaging 9.662 million viewers, finishing fifth overall.
The CBS News magazine followed a 50-minute runover of the network’s afternoon NFL coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones, mainly the Los Angeles Chargers 23-20 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Seattle Seahawks 35-30 victory over the New England Patriots on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the week’s most-watched prime-time program, averaging 17.689 million viewers.
Viewership was essentially unchanged from last season’s Week 2 “Sunday Night Football” game, a 24-20 victory by the Atlanta Falcons over the Philadelphia Eagles.
NFL programming accounted for each of the week’s top four programs.
NBC’s nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show was second for the week, averaging 11.506 million, followed the first game of ESPN’s season-opening “Monday Night Football” doubleheader, the Pittsburgh Steelers 26-16 victory over the New York Giants Sept. 14, which averaged 11.235 million viewers, and Fox’s six-minute postgame show Sunday, which averaged 10.883 million.
NBC finished first in the network race for the second consecutive week, averaging 4.82 million viewers.
Outside of its football programming, NBC’s most-watched programs were the Tuesday and Wednesday “America’s Got Talent” episodes, which were 12th and 13th for the week, fifth and sixth among non-NFL programs and fourth and fifth among entertainment programs, averaging 5.945 million and 5.33 million viewers.
CBS was second for the week, averaging 4.07 million, followed by ABC, which averaged 3.83 million.
Fox averaged 1.32 million viewers for its 15 hours, 39 minutes of prime-time programming, trailing the Spanish-language network Univision, which averaged 1.35 million, and five cable networks.
All the networks Fox trailed aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox’s most-watched prime-time program other than its NFL postgame show was “WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown” professional wrestling program, which averaged 2.037 million viewers, 39th among broadcast programs and seventh among Friday broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The Steelers-Giants game was the week’s most-watched cable program. The second game of the doubleheader, the Tennessee Titans 16-14 victory over the Denver Broncos, was second among cable programs and eighth overall, averaging 8.07 million viewers.
Viewership for the opening game was 16.9 percent less than the 13.527-million average for the 2019 opener, a 30-28 victory by the New Orleans Saints over the Houston Texans.
The second game averaged 26.3 percent less than 10.953-milion average for the second game in 2019, the Oakland Raiders 24-16 victory over the Denver Broncos.
The week’s other prime-time NFL game, the Cleveland Browns 35-30 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on a Thursday night game carried by the NFL Network, averaged 6.68 million viewers, third among cable programs and 10th overall.
Viewership was nearly identical to the 2019 season’s Week 2 Thursday night game on the NFL Network, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers weather-delayed 20-14 victory over the Carolina Panthers.
Official viewership for nearly all forms of programming has decreased because of increased viewing of streaming programming, including the same program shown on traditional television.
The 2020 figures include out-of-home viewing while the 2019 figures do not.
Despite ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” doubleheader, Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the 34th time in 35 weeks, averaging 3.697 million viewers.
ESPN was second, averaging 3.41 million and MSNBC third, averaging 1.958 million.
The most-watched Spanish-language program for the second consecutive week was Univision’s version of “The Masked Singer,” “?Quien es la mascara?” which averaged 2.02 million viewers, 21.9 percent more than its 1.657 million average the previous week.
“?Quien es la mascara?” was 41st among broadcast programs, 13 spots higher than the previous week. Its overall rank was not available for either week.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 42nd consecutive week and 44th time in 45 weeks, averaging 1.35 million viewers. Telemund was second, averaging 1.06 million, followed by UniMas (440,000) Estrella TV (120,000) and Azteca America (50,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 42nd consecutive week, the 93rd time in 94 weeks and the 145th time in 147 weeks, averaging 8.964 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.572 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 5.638 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and its nine-minute pre-kickoff show; ESPN’s Pittsburgh-New York Giants “Monday Night Football” game; Fox’s six-minute NFL postgame show; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s 25-minute third segment of “Football Night in America”; ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”; ESPN’s Tennessee-Denver “Monday Night Football” game; CBS’ coverage of the Academy of County Music Awards; and the NFL Network’s coverage of the Cincinnati-Cleveland NFL game.
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