It was CNN’s week to shine as the political action shifted from the GOP to coverage of the Democratic National Convention.
While Fox News Channel dominated the week before in covering the Republicans, CNN predictably was preferred by viewers of the Democratic confab. In primetime for the week, CNN led all cable networks with an average of 3.21 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel with 2.50 million and MSNBC with 2.38 million.
Hourly segments of CNN’s convention coverage claimed the top nine rungs among cable network ratings in prime time, and among all networks, CNN claimed seven slots in the Nielsen Top 20.
Among broadcast networks for the week, NBC led with an average of 4.7 million viewers (as it warms up for more weekly gold courtesy of its Olympics coverage, starting Friday). The week’s top two shows, as usual, were NBC’s two editions of “America’s Got Talent.”
CBS was the week’s runner-up with 4.3 million, while ABC had 4.0 million and Fox drew a feeble 1.9 million. Univision was right behind with 1.7 million, followed by Telemundo with 1.5 million. After that, ION Television had 1.3 million, and the CW had 900,000 viewers.
In the evening news derby, NBC’s “Nightly News” held the top spot with 7.18 million viewers, followed by ABC’s “World News Tonight” with 7.15 million. The “CBS Evening News” had 6.03 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 25-31. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.47 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 9.52 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.21 million.
4. Democratic Convention Coverage (Thursday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 7.78 million.
5. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 7.30 million.
6. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.72 million.
7. Democratic Convention Coverage (Thursday, 11 p.m.), CNN, 6.54 million.
8. “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 6.52 million.
9. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.35 million.
10. Democratic Convention Coverage (Monday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 6.29 million.
11. Democratic Convention Coverage (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 6.11 million.
12. Democratic Convention Coverage (Wednesday, 11 p.m.), CNN, 5.99 million.
13. Democratic Convention Coverage (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 5.95 million.
14. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 5.90 million.
15. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 5.87 million.
16. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 5.80 million.
17. Democratic Convention Coverage (Thursday, 9 p.m.), CNN, 5.66 million.
18. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 5.57 million.
19. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.48 million.
20. “Blue Bloods,” NBC, 5.45 million.
