By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The news was awful again last week, but viewers found some refuge in TV’s fun-and-games.
In the Nielsen Top 20, no fewer than 11 programs were reality-competition and game shows (including the week’s most-watched series, two editions of “America’s Got Talent”). Add to that baseball’s All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby and “The ESPY Awards,” and clearly viewers were eager for some relief.
Boosted by “America’s Got Talent,” NBC led the networks overall with a prime-time average of 4.9 million viewers. Runner-up ABC had 4.7 million, while CBS had 4.4 million. Fox, with 3.3 million, got a much-needed shot in the arm with its All-Star Game telecast (which drew 8.71 million viewers).
Univision had 1.8 million viewers, Telemundo had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.2 million, and the CW had 980,000 for the week.
Fox News Channel once again was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.75 million viewers during another busy news week. HGTV had 1.49 million, USA had 1.41 million and ESPN had 1.33 million.
In the evening news derby, NBC’s “Night News” regained the top spot with an average 7.9 million viewers, top-ranked every night including Friday, when it was the only newscast of the three to be anchored (by Lester Holt) from Nice following the terrorist attack. In second place was ABC’s “World News Tonight” with 7.6 million while the “CBS Evening News” had 6.5 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 11-17. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 11.85 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.54 million.
3. MLB All-Star Game, Fox, 8.71 million.
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.17 million.
5. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 7.77 million.
6. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.22 million.
7. “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 7.16 million.
8. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.87 million.
9. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 6.34 million.
10. “Night Shift,” NBC, 6.28 million.
11. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 6.18 million.
12. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 6.05 million.
13. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.91 million.
14. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 5.85 million.
15. “Match Game,” ABC, 5.66 million.
16. “ESPY Awards,” ABC, 5.60 million.
17. “Home Run Derby,” ESPN, 5.52 million.
18. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.39 million.
19. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 5.26 million.
20. “To Tell the Truth,” ABC, 5.15 million.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More