By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --With a feast of football, ESPN outpaced all of the broadcasters to be the most-watched network on television during holiday week.
The showcase was ESPN's college football championship semi-finals, which together averaged 19.3 million viewers and outpaced last year's games by 6%, the Nielsen company said. Credit goes primarily to the Clemson-Ohio State pairing, which matched two undefeated teams in a pulsating game not decided until the final minute.
Those games, plus a Monday night NFL contest between Minnesota and Green Bay, helped ESPN beat NBC to be the most popular network.
After all these years, NBC's showing of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve is still a draw. Nielsen said 3.6 million people watched as Santa's trip neared.
Among the broadcast networks, NBC averaged 5.6 million viewers in primetime. CBS had 3.8 million, ABC had 3 million, Fox had 2.6 million, Univision had 1.31 million, ION Television reached 1.27 million, Telemundo had 760,000 and the CW had 590,000.
ESPN's average of 6.31 million in primetime outpaced everyone. Fox News Channel was second among cable networks, with an average of 1.72 million, Hallmark's slate of holiday shows reached 1.54 million, TBS had 1.03 million and TLC had 982,000.
ABC's "World News Tonight" averaged 8.1 million to top the network evening newcasts. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.3 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5 million.
For the week of Dec. 23-29, the top 20 programs, networks and viewerships were:
1. NFL Football: San Francisco at Seattle, NBC, 22.85 million.
2. College Football Championship Semifinal: Clemson vs. Ohio State, ESPN, 20.39 million.
3. "College Football Studio Show," ESPN, 17.3 million.
4. College Football Championship Semifinal: Oklahoma vs. LSU, ESPN, 16.68 million.
5. "NFL Pregame Show," NBC, 15.84 million.
6. NFL Football: Green Bay at Minnesota, ESPN, 13.97 million.
7. "Football Night in America, Part 3," NBC, 10.47 million.
8. "The OT," Fox, 9.91 million.
9. "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.12 million.
10. NBA Basketball: L.A. Clippers at L.A. Lakers, ABC, 7 million.
11. "Monday Night Kickoff," ESPN, 6.79 million.
12. "The Price is Right," CBS, 5.89 million.
13. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 5.3 million.
14. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 4.78 million.
15. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 4.76 million.
16. "NCIS," CBS, 4.69 million.
17. "Magnum P.I.," CBS, 4.47 million.
18. "Football Night in America, Part 2," NBC, 4.06 million.
19. "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 4 million.
20. "FBI," CBS, 3.99 million.
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More