By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Some of last week's most popular television programs are much older than most of the people who watched them.
ABC's showing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was the most-watched of a handful of holiday specials that aired in primetime last week, reaching 5.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. It's a tradition in many households that was first on television in December 1965.
Two other old favorites, "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman," were both seen by more than 4 million people on CBS Saturday night. "Rudolph" dates to 1964, while "Frosty" made his debut in 1969.
Another venerable cartoon, Fox's "The Simpsons," impressively hit Nielsen's top 20 last week with 7.5 million viewers. It has been a regular fixture on Fox's schedule since 1989, with its origins in some animated shorts that ran two years earlier than that.
Dick Wolf, who prides himself on his consistency as a television producer, might appreciate the statistical oddity involving two of his NBC dramas last week. Nielsen estimated that "Chicago Med," which aired Wednesday at 8 p.m., reached 7.944 million viewers while "Chicago Fire," which directly followed it, was seen by 7.943 million.
CBS won the week in primetime, averaging 6.9 million viewers, edging NBC's 6.8 million. Fox averaged 5.9 million and won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic it seeks. ABC had 3.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.2 million, the CW had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 1.09 million.
ESPN was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 2.49 million viewers in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.11 million, Hallmark had 2.02 million, MSNBC had 2 million and USA had 1.25 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.9 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" was second with 8.6 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.3 million.
NFL football again topped the week's ratings, with the L.A. Rams/Chicago Bears game on NBC drawing 19.39 million viewers on Sunday night.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 3-9. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: L.A. Rams at Chicago, NBC, 19.39 million.
2. "NFL Sunday Post-Game," Fox, 19.23 million.
3. "NFL Pre-Game," NBC, 13.63 million.
4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 12.53 million.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 12.05 million.
6. NFL Football: Washington at Philadelphia, ESPN, 11.38 million.
7. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 10.91 million.
8. NFL Football: Jacksonville at Tennessee, Fox, 10.79 million.
9. "FBI," CBS, 9.72 million.
10. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 9 million.
11. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 8.92 million.
12. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 8.895 million.
13. "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.889 million.
14. "Football Night in America," NBC, 8.64 million.
15. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 8.33 million.
16. "Chicago Med," NBC, 7.944 million.
17. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 7.943 million.
18. "Mom," CBS, 7.93 million.
19. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 7.81 million.
20. "The Simpsons," Fox, 7.53 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.
Google Witness At Antitrust Trial Says Government Underestimates Competition For Online Advertising
Federal regulators who say Google holds an illegal monopoly over the technology that matches online advertisers to publishers are vastly underestimating the competition the tech giant faces, an expert hired by Google testified Thursday.
Mark Israel, an economist who prepared an expert report on Google's behalf, said the government's claims that Google holds a monopoly over advertising technology are improperly focused on a narrow market the government defines as "open web display advertising," essentially the rectangular ads that appear on the top and along the right hand side of a web page when a consumer browses the web on a desktop computer.
But the government's case fails to account for a variety of competition that occurs beyond those rectangular boxes, Israel said. In the real world, advertisers have dramatically shifted where they spend money to social media companies like Facebook and TikTok, and online retailers like Amazon.
When you account for all online display advertising, not just the narrow segment defined by the government's case, Google gets just 10% of the U.S. market share as of 2022, he said. That's down from roughly 15% a decade ago.
In addition, advertisers have moved away from placing their ads on the screens of desktop and laptop computers where Google is alleged to control the market, with money migrating to ads placed on apps and mobile device screens. Israel cited marketing data showing display ad spending on desktop and laptop devices has decreased from 71% in 2013 to 17% in 2022.
The government's case "seems to miss where the competition is today," Israel said.
His testimony comes as Google wraps up its defense in the third week of an antitrust trial that began earlier this month in Alexandria,... Read More