“The Masked Singer” episode that aired on Thanksgiving drew the largest audience for a prime-time entertainment program since April, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen.
The episode where singer Paul Anka was unmasked as Broccoli averaged 11.424 million viewers, the most for a prime-time entertainment program since April 15 when the season finale of the CBS action drama “NCIS” averaged 13.501 million viewers.
In the Eastern and Central time zones where the bulk of the nation’s population lives, “The Masked Singer” followed Fox’s telecast of the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Football Team game that averaged 30.333 million viewers, the most for any program since Super Bowl LIV.
“The Masked Singer” was fifth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Nov. 23 and Sunday, trailing two NFL games, “60 Minutes” and the nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show.
“Sunday Night Football” was the most-watched prime-time program for the fifth consecutive week despite a 15.8% drop in viewership from the previous week. The Green Bay Packers’ 41-25 victory over the Chicago Bears averaged 16.483 million viewers in a game Green Bay led 27-10 at halftime and 41-10 after three quarters.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ 35-31 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders a week earlier averaged 19.573 million viewers, the largest audience for a prime-time program since the NFL Kickoff Game on Sept. 10. There were four fourth-quarter lead changes in the Nov. 22 game, with Travis Kelce catching the winning touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes with 28 seconds to play.
Despite “Sunday Night Football’s” viewership drop, NBC was the most-watched network for the fourth consecutive week and fifth time in the 10-week-old 2020-21 television season, averaging 5.27 million viewers.
In a week with a higher amount of reruns than usual on Thursday and Friday because of Thanksgiving, CBS was second, averaging 4.87 million viewers and ABC was third, averaging 3.2 million. Cable’s ESPN was fourth, averaging 2.953 million. Fox averaged 2.46 million for its 16 hours of programming.
NBC, CBS, ABC and ESPN all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
“60 Minutes” was the week’s most-watched non-NFL program, finishing second overall, averaging 13.777 million. The news magazine followed a 35-minute overrun of CBS’ afternoon NFL coverage which averaged 26.37 million viewers. The overrun is not considered a separate program, but is included in the weekly average.
CBS also had each of the week’s six most-watched scripted programs, topped by “NCIS,” eighth overall, averaging 10.162 million viewers. CBS also had the most-watched comedy, “The Neighborhood,” which averaged 5.462 million viewers, putting it fourth among scripted programs, ninth among entertainment programs and 17th overall.
The CBS crime drama “FBI: Most Wanted” was the week’s most-watched 10 p.m. program, averaging 5.664 million viewers, third among scripted programs, eighth among entertainment programs and 16th overall.
ABC’s most-watched program was the “Dancing with the Stars” season finale which averaged 6.423 million viewers, 13th for the week and sixth among entertainment programs.
The Rams’ 27-24 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on “Monday Night Football” Nov. 23 was the week’s most-watched cable program, averaging 13.136 million viewers, fourth overall.
ESPN was the most-watched cable network averaging 2.953 million viewers. Hallmark Channel was second averaging 2.527 million and Fox News Channel third, averaging 1.998 million after 42 first-place finishes in the previous 44 weeks.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Univision’s coverage of Saturday’s final leg of the Liga MX quarterfinal series between Club America and Chivas, which averaged 2.501 million viewers, 71st overall.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 52nd consecutive week and 54th time in 55 weeks, averaging 1.48 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 870,000, followed by UniMas (510,000), Estrella TV (180,000) and Azteca America (50,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 52nd consecutive week, the 103rd time in 104 weeks and the 155th time in 157 weeks, averaging 9.486 million viewers for its Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday newscasts.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 8.754 million viewers for its Monday, Tuesday and Friday newscasts. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third averaging 6.251 million viewers for its Monday and Tuesday newscasts.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; Fox’s “The Masked Singer”; Fox’s six-minute NFL postgame show; the 19-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America”; CBS’ “NCIS” and “FBI”; and the 25-minute second segment of “Football Night in America.”