The NCAA men’s basketball tournament helped “60 Minutes” draw its largest audience since Jan. 8 as CBS finished first in the network race for the sixth time in the last eight weeks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The news magazine was the most-watched prime-time program between March 13 and Sunday, averaging 8.261 million viewers for a broadcast with a two-part report on the state of the U.S. Navy and a profile of billionaire businessman Rocco Commisso, owner of the Italian soccer team ACF Fiorentina.
“60 Minutes” followed a 39-minute overrun of CBS’ afternoon coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in the Eastern and Central time zones where the bulk of the nation’s population lives. The overrun averaged 12.92 million viewers. It is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average.
CBS also had both of the other prime-time programs to average more than 7 million viewers — “NCIS,” second for the week averaging 7.187 million viewers and “FBI,” third averaging 7.164 million.
CBS also had the most-watched prime-time sporting event, Texas’ 71-66 victory over Penn State in a second-round NCAA men’s basketball game Saturday, fifth for the week, averaging 6.631 million viewers; the most-watched comedy “The Neighborhood,” eighth averaging 5.534 million viewers; the most-watched program beginning at 10 p.m., “NCIS: Hawai’i,” ninth, averaging 5.153 million viewers; and the most-watched first-season program, the police drama, “East New York,” 15th, averaging 4.745 million.
CBS had 11 of the 12 most-watched prime-time programs and averaged 5.15 million viewers. The only times CBS has not finished first in the past eight weeks were the weeks of Feb. 6-13 when Fox aired Super Bowl LVII and March 6-12 when ABC aired the Oscars.
NBC was second, averaging 2.94 million viewers. It had the most-watched non-CBS program, the March 13 edition of “The Voice,” fourth for the week averaging 6.99 million viewers.
ABC was third, averaging 2.85 million viewers. “American Idol” was ABC’s most-watched program for the fourth time in the five weeks it has aired this season, averaging 4.884 million viewers, 14th for the week. The only interruption to the streak was the week that ABC aired the Oscars.
CBS, NBC and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 2.21 million viewers for its 16 hours of programming. The procedural drama “9-1-1” was its most-watched program for the second consecutive week, finishing 17th, averaging 4.381 million viewers.
The CW averaged 470,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. The third season premiere of the superhero drama “Superman & Lois” was its most-watched program, averaging 747,000 viewers, 145th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.
The CW aired the week’s only premiere on the five major broadcast networks, the superhero drama about Gotham City after Bruce Wayne’s killing, “Gotham Knights,” which was second among CW programs and 167th among broadcast programs, averaging 609,000 viewers after “Superman & Lois.”
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of nine CBS scripted programs, its news magazine “60 Minutes” and its alternative series “Survivor”; two editions of the NBC singing competition, “The Voice”; one NCAA men’s basketball tournament game each on CBS and TNT; three ABC programs — the alternative programs “American Idol” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and the scripted firefighters drama “Station 19” — and two Fox programs, “9-1-1” and the singing competition, “The Masked Singer.”
The most-watched cable program was TNT’s coverage of Fairleigh Dickinson’s 63-58 victory over Purdue on Friday, when Fairleigh Dickinson became the second 16th-seeded team in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to defeat a No. 1 seed. The game averaged 4.371 million viewers, 18th for the week.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in prime time for the eighth consecutive week, averaging 1.949 million viewers. TNT was second, averaging 1.866 million viewers, TBS third, averaging 1.761 million and truTV fourth, averaging 1.125 million viewers. All three networks broadcast NCAA men’s basketball tournament games.
MSNBC was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.078 million.
The cable top 20 consisted of nine NCAA men’s basketball tournament games and three tournament studio shows; six Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (four broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and two of “Hannity”); History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; and the MSNBC news and opinion program, “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“The Glory” was Netflix’s most-watched program for the second consecutive week, with viewers spending 123.59 million hours watching the 16 episodes of the South Korean revenge thriller, including the second eight episodes of the first season that were released March 10. Viewership dropped less than 1% from the 124.46 million hours watched the previous week.
“Luther: The Fallen Sun” was Netflix’s most-watched movie for the second consecutive week, with viewers watching the continuation of the BBC psychological crime thriller for 69.54 million hours, 5.5% more than the 65.92 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.
For the third consecutive week, each of the five most-watched Spanish-language programs were episodes of the Univision telenovela, “Mi Camino es Amarteo.” The March 15 episode was the most-watched, averaging 1.825 million viewers, 64th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 32nd consecutive week and 170th time in 172 weeks, averaging 1.36 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.01 million viewers, followed by UniMas (420,000) and Estrella TV (90,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for 171st time in 172 weeks and 223rd time in 225 weeks, averaging 8.005 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.727 million viewers, and the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” third, averaging 4.895 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ “60 Minutes,” “NCIS” and “FBI”; the March 13 episode of NBC’s singing competition “The Voice”; CBS’ coverage of the Penn State-Texas NCAA men’s basketball tournament game, “The Equalizer,” “FBI: International,” “The Neighborhood,” “NCIS: Hawai’i” and “FBI: Most Wanted.”