The new television season hasn’t begun yet, but the football season has, and it’s carrying the networks in the interim.
Four NFL games finished among the Nielsen company’s top 12 shows last week, led by the Sunday night matchup of Philadelphia against Atlanta.
ABC devoted its entire primetime lineup to the third Democratic presidential debate last Thursday, reaching a healthy audience of just under 13 million viewers, Nielsen said.
Between football and “America’s Got Talent,” NBC won the network ratings race. The network averaged 5.7 million viewers in prime time. ABC was second with 4.5 million, CBS had 3.9 million, Fox had 3.1 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Univision had 1.2 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 570,000.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.42 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 1.89 million, MSNBC had 1.71 million, Hallmark had 1.38 million and HGTV had 1.32 million. HGTV’s heavily-promoted home renovation show with actors from “The Brady Bunch” reached 3.37 million for its premiere.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers. The “NBC Nightly News” had 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Sept. 9-15. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Philadelphia at Atlanta, NBC, 17.64 million.
2. “NFL Post-Game,” Fox, 15.02 million.
3. NFL Football: Houston at New Orleans, ESPN, 13.53 million.
4. “Democratic Presidential Debate,” ABC, 12.95 million.
5. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 12.91 million.
6. “The OT,” Fox, 11.09 million.
7. NFL Football: Denver at Oakland, ESPN, 10.95 million.
8. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 9.48 million.
9. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 9.4 million.
10. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 8.46 million.
11. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.48 million.
12. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at Carolina, NFL Network, 6.67 million.
13. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.69 million.
14. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 4.79 million.
15. “FBI,” CBS, 4.77 million.
16. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 4.64 million.
17. “Football Night in America, Part 2,” NBC, 4.6 million.
18. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 4.59 million.
19. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 4.58 million.
20. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 4.55 million.
ABC and ESPN are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is owned by Fox Corp.; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.