CBS had five of the nine most-watched programs in the latest weekly ratings, topped by “60 Minutes,” to finish first in the network race for the eighth time in nine weeks.
“60 Minutes” was the only prime-time program between Aug. 14 and Sunday to average more than 5 million viewers, averaging 5.291 million for an edition with three segments that aired previously and were updated for Sunday’s broadcast.
NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the only other program to top 4 million, averaging 4.402 million viewers, the least of its 11 original episodes to air this summer, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
The previous low was 4.832 million viewers for the July 25 edition.
Each of the summer’s original episodes of “America’s Got Talent” has been the week’s most-watched entertainment program.
CBS averaged 2.33 million viewers. It had the most-watched comedy, a rerun of “Young Sheldon” that averaged 3.294 million viewers, sixth for the week, and the most-watched drama, “FBI,” which averaged 3.28 million viewers to finish seventh.
The Sunday and Wednesday episodes of the alternative series “Big Brother” were eighth and ninth, averaging 3.244 million and 3.232 million.
ABC was second after back-to-back third-place finishes, averaging 2.14 million viewers. Its most-watched program was “Celebrity Family Feud,” fourth for the week averaging 3.646 million viewers.
NBC was third, averaging 2.04 million.
Fox averaged 1.18 million viewers for its 15 hours, 19 minutes of prime-time programming. Its most-watched program was the professional wrestling program, “WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown,” 38th for the week and fifth among Friday’s programs, averaging 2.094 million viewers,
The CW averaged 290,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming.
Its most-watched program for the fourth time in the six weeks it has aired was the historical drama about Jesus, “The Chosen” which averaged 463,000 viewers Sunday, 173rd among broadcast programs, three spots behind Thursday’s broadcast of the 1959 film “The Oregon Trail” on the Westerns-oriented network Grit, which averaged 480,000.
The overall ranks for both programs were not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of “60 Minutes,” reruns of seven CBS scripted programs; three episodes of “Big Brother”; the NBC alternative series “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior”; five episodes of ABC alternative series; and two MSNBC political talk shows broadcast on Aug. 14, the day former President Donald Trump was indicted in Georgia following an investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
The Aug. 14 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC was the most-watched cable program, averaging 3.927 million viewers, third overall.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the eighth consecutive week and ninth time in 10 weeks, averaging 1.612 million viewers. It was first among cable news networks for the 10th consecutive week and 130th time in 131 weeks.
MSNBC averaged 1.564 million viewers to finish second among cable networks for the fifth consecutive week. HGTV was third for the third consecutive week, averaging 802,000 viewers. CNN was fourth, averaging 733,000 viewers, four spots higher than the previous week when it averaged 581,000 viewers.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of 10 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — five broadcasts of “Hannity,” three of “Gutfeld!” and two of “Jesse Watters Primetime”; eight MSNBC political talk shows — four broadcasts of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” two of “Alex Wagner Tonight,” the Aug. 14 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show” and the Aug. 15 edition of “All In with Chris Hayes”; NFL Network’s coverage of Sunday’s Los Angeles Chargers-New Orleans Saints preseason game; and the Hallmark Channel period drama “When Calls The Heart.”
Netflix’s most-watched title for the second consecutive week was the Gal Gadot-starring spy action thriller “Heart of Stone,” which was watched for 74 million hours the first full week it was available, 6.3% more than the 69.6 million hours it was watched the previous week when it was available for three days.
Netflix’s most-watched series was “Painkiller” with viewers spending 54.1 million hours watching the six-episode limited scripted series exploring some of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America in its first full week of release.
Viewership was up 50.4% from the 35.9 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for four days.
For the third consecutive week, an episode of the Univision telenovela “Tierra de Esperanza” was the most-watched Spanish-language program with the Monday episode averaging 1.605 million viewers, 45th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 54th consecutive week and 192nd time in 194 weeks, averaging 1.14 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 710,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (230,000) and Estrella TV (70,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 246th time in 247 weeks, averaging 7.658 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 5.91 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.42 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; the Aug. 14 edition of MSNBC political talk show “The Rachel Maddow Show”; ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; CBS’ “Young Sheldon” and “FBI”; the Sunday and Wednesday editions of CBS’ “Big Brother”; and the Aug. 14 edition of MSNBC political talk show “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”