By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --It's no secret, sports fans. Better games produce better ratings.
That was the simple lesson for the NFL this week, after a dip in viewership for its conference championship games, compared to 2019. The Nielsen company said 42.8 million people watched the San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers to punch their Super Bowl ticket, and 41.1 million people watched Kansas City beat Tennessee.
Both conference championship games went into overtime last year, and the audiences were 44.2 million and 53.9 million, Nielsen said. By contrast, this year's games were one-sided.
LSU's win over Clemson in the college football national championship game was seen by 25.6 million on ESPN, Nielsen said. That's a little over a million more than last year's game reached.
With the benefit of an NFL game in primetime, Fox led all the broadcast networks in ratings last week, averaging 9.9 million viewers. CBS had 4.9 million viewers in primetime, NBC had 4.2 million, ABC had 3.8 million, Univision had 1.6 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 890,000 and the CW had 790,000.
ESPN led the cable networks, averaging 4.28 million viewers in primetime. Fox News Channel averaged 2.75 million, MSNBC had 1.86 million, CNN had 1.46 million and TLC had 1.18 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.3 million viewers last week. NBC's "Nightly News" had 8.1 million viewers and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.9 million viewers.
The top 20 programs as measured by Nielsen last week, their network and viewership:
1. NFC Championship: Green Bay at San Francisco, Fox, 42.79 million.
2. "NFL Post-Game" (9:44 to 9:49 p.m. Eastern), Fox, 31.29 million.
3. College Football Championship: Clemson vs. LSU, ESPN, 25.58 million.
4. "NFL Post-Game" (9:50 to 10:04 p.m. Eastern), Fox, 23.92 million.
5. "College Football Post-Game," ESPN, 16.7 million.
6. "Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time, Match 4," ABC, 13.55 million.
7. "911: Lone Star," Fox, 11.41 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 10.13 million.
9. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 8.88 million.
10. "FBI," CBS, 8.57 million
11. "Chicago Med," NBC, 8.45 million.
12. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 8.17 million.
13. "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.1 million.
14. "Democratic Debate," CNN, 7.4 million.
15. "Chicago PD," NBC, 6.78 million.
16. "This is Us," NBC, 6.73 million.
17. "America's Got Talent Champions," NBC, 6.53 million.
18. "FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 6.52 million.
19. "Mom," CBS, 6.3 million.
20. "Democratic Debate Analysis," CNN, 5.77 million.
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTEยฎ,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
โSMPTEโs membership has spoken,โ said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann DโAmato. โThese officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!โ
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More