By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The presidential election boosted NBC News – and its aftermath helped Fox News Channel and “60 Minutes.”
Although CNN and Fox News were the most-watched networks on election night, NBC topped its broadcast brethren ABC and CBS, a major point of pride for the news divisions. The presidential contest also helped NBC’s regularly scheduled newscasts.
For example, the “Today” show on Wednesday had its most-watched single day since the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, as America tuned in to learn more about Donald Trump’s election as president, the Nielsen company said. “Today” also beat ABC’s “Good Morning America” for the week, its first weekly win since February, not counting the weeks NBC broadcast from the Olympics.
NBC’s “Nightly News” won last week as well, stopping at least temporarily a slide that has led ABC’s “World News Tonight” to do better the last two months. Lester Holt’s newscast on Wednesday was the most-watched since last February, Nielsen said.
Meanwhile, 20 million people tuned in to a “60 Minutes” interview with President-elect Trump and his family on Sunday. That was the biggest audience for the venerable newsmagazine since its Sean Penn interview last January and, before that, all the way back to an interview with Barack Obama just after his election in 2008.
Post-election cable news ratings gave a strong indication of who was interested in watching political news. Fox News Channel – where most happy Trump fans would be likely to watch – averaged 4.82 million viewers in prime time last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That was up 48 percent from its average during October, Nielsen said.
Meanwhile, the audiences for both CNN and MSNBC were depressed: CNN was down 1 percent from October for those three days, and MSNBC down 24 percent.
NBC won last week in prime time, averaging 8.4 million viewers for the week. CBS averaged 8 million viewers, ABC had 6 million, Fox had 5.5 million, Univision had 2.2 million, Telemundo had 1.7 million, the CW had 1.3 million and ION Television had 1.2 million.
Fox News was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 4.77 million viewers for the week. CNN had 3.15 million, ESPN had 2.43 million, Hallmark had 2.05 million and MSNBC had 1.89 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.8 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was second with 8.7 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.3 million viewers.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Nov. 7-13. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Seattle at New England, NBC, 22.51 million.
2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 20 million.
3. “The OT,” Fox, 18.56 million.
4. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 17.45 million.
5. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 14.47 million.
6. Election Night Coverage, CNN, 13.26 million.
7. Election Night Coverage, Fox News, 12.11 million.
7. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 12.11 million.
9. “The Walking Dead,” AMC, 11.4 million.
10. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 11.32 million.
11. Election Night Coverage, NBC, 11.22 million.
12. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 10.85 million.
13. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 10.27 million.
14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 9.97 million.
15. “Hawaii Five-O,” CBS, 9.84 million.
16. “Madam Secretary,” CBS, 9.27 million.
17. Election Night Coverage, ABC, 9.16 million.
18. “Survivor,” CBS, 8.81 million.
19. “Empire,” Fox, 8.15 million.
20. Election Night Coverage, CBS, 8.14 million.
Sean Baker Again Delves Into Seldom-Chronicled American Subcultures–This Time With “Anora”
Sean Baker's interest in the lives of sex workers began with his 2012 drama "Starlet." For that film, set around the adult film world of San Fernando Valley, Baker spent time listening to the stories of sex workers. Some co-starred in the movie. Many became friends.
"I remember being on set and Radium Cheung, my DP, was like, 'There's a whole other movie. And there's a whole other movie,'" Baker recalls. "I was like, 'There's a million stories to be told in this world.'"
Since then, Baker has traversed a wide swath of America in films set everywhere from West Hollywood donut shops to industrial rural Texas. But he has kept the lives of sex workers in focus. The iPhone-shot "Tangerine" (2015) is about a pair of Los Angeles trans sex workers out to avenge a cheating boyfriend. In "The Florida Project" (2017), a single mother turns to sex work to support herself and her daughter in an Orlando motel. "Red Rocket" (2021) comically captures a washed-up porn star.
When his latest film "Anora," starring Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who spontaneously marries the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Baker took the moment to speak about chipping away at the stigma of sex work. He dedicated the award to "all sex workers, past, present and future."
It was a crowning moment for the 53-year-old who has long considered the French festival the pinnacle.
"It was the dream. You're sort of in an existential crisis after that. I'm still figuring it out, quite honestly," Baker said in a recent interview. "It's not about opening doors. It's certainly not about trying to get into the studio. To tell you the truth, it does the exact opposite. It says: OK, good. Now we can continue to do... Read More