CNN’s airing of a documentary on singer Glen Campbell’s fight with Alzheimer’s Disease shattered previous viewership records for a movie on the news network.
The Nielsen company said 2.76 million people watched “Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me” on Sunday, with another 1.26 million watching the rerun that aired immediately after.
CNN started its film unit in 2012, seeking to broaden its programming mix to bring in viewers during slow news periods. It has aired some 20 movies, a mixture of films produced by the network or, like the Campbell documentary, acquired from outside sources. Previously, the movie “Blackfish,” with 1.35 million viewers on its first airing, was CNN’s most popular film.
The BET awards show reached just under 6.3 million viewers on Sunday, a sharp drop from the 7.5 million who watched the annual program in 2014.
Meanwhile, Lester Holt earned bragging rights during his first week as Brian Williams’ replacement as NBC “Nightly News” anchor. “Nightly News” averaged 8 million viewers during a particularly busy news week with major Supreme Court decisions and the aftermath of the South Carolina church shooting. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 7.7 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.6 million.
Holt filled in for Williams following Williams’ suspension for lying about his role in news stories, and earlier this month NBC said Holt would take over full-time.
ABC’s newscast with David Muir, by a wafer-thin margin of 40,000 viewers, won for the months of April, May and June together — its first quarter-year victory in eight years.
CBS was back on top in prime time, led by the return of its “Big Brother” summer series, averaging 5.5 million viewers. NBC had 4.5 million, and won among the youthful demographic that it targets. ABC had 3.9 million, Fox had 2.8 million, Univision had 2.3 million, Telemundo had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1 million and the CW had 800,000.
The Disney Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.36 million viewers in prime time. TNT had 1.74 million, USA had 1.7 million, HGTV had 1.62 million and Fox News Channel had 1.54 million.
For the week of June 22-28, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.08 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 8.78 million; “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 8.28 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” NBC, 7.39 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.25 million; “Big Brother” (Wednesday) CBS, 6.92 million; “Dateline NBC,” NBC, 6.87 million; “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.64 million; “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 6.42 million; “BET Awards,” BET, 6.27 million.
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 22-28. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.08 million.
2. “NCIS,” CBS, 8.78 million.
3. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 8.28 million.
4. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” NBC, 7.39 million.
5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.25 million.
6. “Big Brother” (Wednesday) CBS, 6.92 million.
7. “Dateline NBC,” NBC, 6.87 million.
8. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.64 million.
9. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 6.42 million.
10. “BET Awards,” BET, 6.27 million.
11. “Under the Dome,’ CBS, 6.25 million.
12. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.21 million.
13. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.2 million.
14. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 6.03 million.
15. “48 Hours” (Tuesday), CBS, 5.86 million.
15. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 5.86 million.
17. Movie: “Teen Beach 2,” Disney, 5.82 million.
18. Women’s World Cup: China vs. USA, Fox, 5.74 million.
19. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 5.56 million.
20. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 5.25 million.
