“America’s Got Talent” was the most-watched program during the first full week of prime-time television’s summer season and one of two shows to average more than 6 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
The 16th season premiere of the NBC series averaged 7.372 million viewers. An edition of the CBS News magazine “60 Minutes” with repeats of three previously broadcast segments that were updated for Sunday’s broadcast was second, averaging 7.064 million viewers.
The most-watched scripted program between May 31 and Sunday was the fourth season finale of the action drama “Station 19,” which was fifth for the week, averaging 4.903 million viewers. The 17th season finale of the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” that followed on ABC was second among scripted programs and seventh overall, averaging 4.759 million viewers.
The most-watched sporting event and most-watched cable program was TNT’s coverage of the sixth and final game of the NBA first-round playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns that averaged 4.531 million viewers, ninth for the week.
Univision’s coverage of Sunday’s CONCACAF Nations League final between Mexico and the United States was second among the week’s prime-time sporting events and first among Spanish-language programming, averaging 3.923 million viewers, 16th overall.
In a week that mixed a substantial amount of alternative programming with reruns and some first-run scripted programming, CBS was first, averaging 3.32 million viewers for its prime-time programming.
ABC edged NBC, 3.17 million-3.16 million, for second. Fox was fourth among English-language broadcast networks, averaging 1.65 million viewers for its 15 hours, 42 minutes of prime-time programming.
The CW again was fifth among the five major English-language broadcast networks, averaging 460,000 viewers for its 12 hours of programming.
CBS, ABC and NBC each broadcast 22 hours of prime-time programming.
ABC’s most-watched program was the seventh season premiere of “Celebrity Family Feud” which was third for the week, averaging 5.741 million viewers for a matchup between the families of actors Rob Lowe and Terrence Howard.
Fox’s most-watched program was “Fox Saturday Baseball,” 53rd among the week’s broadcast and cable programs for its regionalized coverage of three games, including one between the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves that averaged 2.678 million viewers.
The CW’s most-watched program was the superhero drama “Superman & Lois” which averaged 1.237 million viewers, tying for 125th among broadcast programs with a 1964 episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” which aired on Me TV. Its overall rank was not available.
There were two series premieres on the five major English-language broadcast networks. The NBC game show “Small Fortune” averaged 1.472 million viewers, 71st among broadcast programs. The Fox animated comedy “Housebroken” averaged 994,000 viewers, 101st among broadcast programs. The overall ranks for both programs were not available.
TNT’s NBA playoff coverage made it the most-watched cable network for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.357 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second for the second consecutive week following eight consecutive first-place finishes, averaging 1.953 million viewers. HGTV was third, averaging 1.254 million viewers.
The top 20 cable programs consisted of 10 NBA playoff games on TNT, seven Fox News Channel programs — four broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and three of “Hannity” — two broadcasts of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and one NBA playoff game on ESPN.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 79th consecutive week and 81st time in 82 weeks, averaging 1.52 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 880,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (590,000), Estrella TV (130,000) and Azteca America (50,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 79th consecutive week, the 130th time in 131 weeks and the 182nd time in 184 weeks, averaging 7.307 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.326 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 4.696 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud”; the 43rd annual Kennedy Center Honors on CBS; ABC’s “Station 19,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Grey’s Anatomy”; a rerun of CBS’ “NCIS”; TNT’s coverage of Game 6 of the NBA first-round playoff series between the Lakers and Phoenix Suns; and a rerun of CBS’ “FBI.”