By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --NBC kicked off the new year with a winning week and a football clash that took the top spot.
Nielsen says NBC’s telecast of the NFL playoff game between Detroit and Seattle was the week’s most-watched show with nearly 27 million viewers. That helped the network to an overall win in prime time with an average of 10.32 million viewers.
Also helping: NBC’s Golden Globes telecast, seen by 20 million viewers.
It all added up to NBC’s seventh straight weekly win, its longest in-season streak in 21 years.
The week’s runner-up was CBS, scoring 12 shows in the Top 20 and a prime-time average of 7.92 million. Fox, placing third, had 6.12 million.
ABC had 5.15 million viewers, while Univision had 1.95 million, Telemundo had 1.64 million, ION television had 1.30 million, and the CW had 750,000 viewers.
Among cable networks, ESPN was on top with an average 3.14 million viewers. Runner-up Fox News Channel had 2.37 million, while HGTV had 1.72 million.
In the newscast derby, ABC’s “World News Tonight” held the lead with an average of 9.96 million viewers, while NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 9.77 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 8.12 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 2-8. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Playoff: Detroit vs. Seattle, NBC, 26.89 million.
2. NFC Wildcard Postgame (New York Giants vs. Green Bay), Fox, 21.52 million.
3. Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 20.02 million.
4. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 16.80 million.
5. NFL Playoff Pre-kick, NBC, 16.78 million.
6. “NCIS,” CBS, 15.80 million.
7. “Bull,” CBS, 11.31 million.
8. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 10.78 million.
9. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 10.41 million
10. Rose Bowl: USC vs. Penn State, ESPN, 10.19 million.
11. “Hawaii Five-O,” CBS, 10.10 million
12. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 9.63 million.
13. “The Great Indoors,” CBS, 9.46 million.
14. “Madam Secretary,” CBS, 9.00 million.
15. “Mom,” CBS, 8.50 million.
16. “MacGyver,” CBS, 8.42 million.
17. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.22 million.
18. “The Simpsons,” Fox, 8.19 million.
19. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 7.89 million.
20. “Last Man Standing,” ABC, 7.75 million.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More