By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --“America’s Got Talent” ended its summer run last week with the most-watched entertainment programs on television since May, although its popularity dipped this summer.
Just under 13 million people watched the final two episodes of the NBC competition last week, where magician Shin Lim was chosen as the winner. While those were bigger audiences than any entertainment show since the last original episode of “The
Big Bang Theory,” Wednesday’s finale was down 18 percent from the 2017 season finale, the Nielsen company said.
Last season was an anomaly for the talent show, which had its highest ratings ever during its 12th season. Young ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer was a popular winner in 2017. Overall, viewership for the main Tuesday edition of the show was down 11 percent from last year, Nielsen said.
Still, “America’s Got Talent” remains by far the most popular television series of the summer, and NBC is planning a midseason edition this year for the first time.
That series, along with a Sunday night football matchup, led NBC to a dominant week in the television ratings, nearly doubling its closest rival in audience size.
NBC averaged 8.2 million viewers for the week. CBS was second with 4.2 million, Fox had 4 million, ABC had 2.7 million, Univision has 1.33 million, Telemundo had 1.32 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and the CW had 650,000.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.71 million viewers in primetime. ESPN had 2.55 million, MSNBC had 1.88 million, HGTV had 1.31 million and USA had 1.3 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.2 million viewers, and scored its biggest season advantage over NBC in 22 years. Last week the “NBC Nightly News” averaged 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.6 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Sept. 17-23. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: New England at Detroit, NBC, 19.46 million.
2. “NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 13 million.
3. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 12.99 million.
4. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 12.88 million.
5. NFL Football: Seattle at Chicago, ESPN, 11.89 million.
6. “The OT,” Fox, 11.55 million.
7. “Emmy Awards,” NBC, 10.22 million.
8. “911,” Fox, 9.83 million.
9. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 9.13 million.
10. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.99 million.
11. NFL Football: N.Y. Jets at Cleveland, NFLN, 8.69 million.
12. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.26 million.
13. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.31 million.
14. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.07 million.
15. “I Feel Bad,” NBC, 5.72 million.
16. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 5.7 million.
17. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 5.57 million.
18. “Bull,” CBS, 5.48 million.
19. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 5.44 million.
20. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 4.91 million.
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More