“Young Rock” drew the largest audience among the 14 comedy premieres on NBC since 2017 while debut of “Kenan” that followed was also second in its time slot, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
The look at various chapters at football player turned professional wrestler turned actor Dwayne Johnson’s life averaged 5.319 million viewers, second in its 8-8:30 p.m. Tuesday time slot behind a rerun of the CBS action drama “NCIS,” 18th among prime-time programs airing between Feb. 15 and Sunday and third among comedies
“Kenan,” which stars Kenan Thompson as the host of an Atlanta morning television program and the widowed father of two daughters, averaged 4.226 million viewers, 28th for the week and sixth among comedies.
Ratings for premieres are often unrepresentative of how the series will fare due to the heavy promotion they receive and because viewers who are interested in the concept may not return for future episodes.
The week’s other premiere on the four major broadcast networks, the Fox game show “Cherries Wild” averaged 1.195 million viewers opposite “60 Minutes,” 110th among broadcast programming. Its overall rank was not available.
With CBS not airing original episodes of television’s two most-popular entertainment programs to have aired at least five episodes this season — “NCIS” and “FBI” — its news magazine “60 Minutes” was the week’s most-watched prime-time program, averaging 9.555 million viewers.
“The Equalizer” which followed was the week’s only other program to average more than 8 million viewers, averaging 8.125 million.
An element of NBC’s “Chicago” franchise was the most-watched non-CBS program for the third consecutive week, with “Chicago Med” averaging 7.591 million viewers, fourth for the week.
The procedural drama “9-1-1” was Fox’s most-watched program for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 6.85 million viewers, sixth for the week.
“American Idol” was ABC’s most-watched program, for the second time in the two weeks it has aired this season, averaging 6.674 million viewers, seventh for the week.
CBS’ “Young Sheldon” was the most-watched comedy, averaging 7.721 million viewers, third for the week. NBC’s “Chicago P.D.” was the most-watched program beginning at 10 p.m., averaging 5.879 million viewers, 11th for the week.
CBS finished first in the network race for the fifth consecutive week and seventh time in the 22-week-old 2020-21 television season, averaging 4.59 million viewers for its prime-time programming.
The order of finish behind CBS was the same as the previous three weeks. ABC was second, averaging 3.87 million viewers, and NBC third, averaging 3.49 million. Fox was fourth, averaging 2.62 million viewers for its 15 hours of programming.
CBS, ABC and NBC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming for the week.
The Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” ended the three-week streak of “The Rachel Maddow Show” being the most-watched prime-time cable program, with the Wednesday episode averaging 3.704 million viewers, 38th overall.
CNN’s town hall with President Joe Biden was second among cable programs and 39th overall, averaging 3.66 million.
The order of finish among the top three cable networks was the same for the fourth consecutive week. Fox News Channel was first, averaging 2.42 million viewers, MSNBC second, averaging 1.905 million and CNN third, averaging 1.603 million.
The week’s most-watched Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of the Premio Lo Nuestro Latin music awards show, which averaged 2.839 million viewers, 65th among the week’s prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 64th consecutive week and 66th time in 67 weeks, averaging 1.55 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.02 million viewers followed by UniMas (570,000), Estrella TV (160,000) and Azteca America (60,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 64th consecutive week, the 115th time in 116 weeks and the 167th time in 169 weeks, averaging 10.169 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 8.332 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 6.393 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ “60 Minutes,” “The Equalizer” and “Young Sheldon”; NBC’s “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire”; Fox’s “9-1-1”; ABC’s “American Idol” and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune”; and CBS’ “Magnum P.I.” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”