CBS was back to its old ways last week, winning decisively in viewership and seizing the lion’s share of the week’s most-watched shows, according to the Nielsen company. Led by its coverage of the AFC Wildcard Playoff game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, seen by more than 31 million viewers, CBS placed another dozen prime-time shows in the Top 20.
Besides that top-ranked game and the “pre-kick” broadcast that preceded it (which placed third), the rest of CBS’ winners were regular-series comedies and dramas.
NBC took the fifth-place slot with its “Golden Globes Awards” telecast, seen by 18.5 million viewers. And its new Jennifer Lopez-starring police drama, “Shades of Blue,” had a promising debut seen by 8.6 million viewers, occupying 19th place.
Fox’s “American Idol” returned for its final season, ranking ninth and 12th for its pair of editions, though each, seen by a bit over 10 million viewers, was a shadow of its former self as an audience draw.
For the week overall, CBS was far ahead with an average of 12.10 million viewers. Fox was a distant second place with 8.21 million viewers. NBC had 7.46 million, while ABC had 4.35 million, Univision had 2.29 million, Telemundo had 1.69 million, ION Television had 1.32 million, and the CW had 990,000 viewers.
Among cable networks, Fox News Channel was in first place, with a prime-time average of 1.97 million viewers, followed by Discovery with 1.85 million, TBS with 1.66 million, HGTV with 1.64 million and USA with 1.62 million.
ABC had its second consecutive weekly win in the evening news race with its “World News Tonight” drawing 9.77 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was runner-up with 9.69 million. The “CBS Evening News” had 8.21 million viewers, its biggest audience in a year.
Here are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 4-10. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. AFC Wildcard Playoff: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, CBS, 31.23 million.
2. NFC Wildcard Post-Game (8:11 p.m. EST), Fox, 23.04 million.
3. AFC Wildcard Pre-kick (8:08 p.m.), CBS, 22.16 million.
4. “NCIS,” CBS, 18.98 million.
5. “Golden Globe Awards,” NBC, 18.51 million.
6. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 17.25 million.
7. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 15.85 million.
8. “Scorpion,” CBS, 11.67 million.
9. “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 10.96 million.
10. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 10.85 million.
11. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 10.51 million.
12. “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 10.21 million.
13. “Hawaii Five-O,” CBS, 9.41 million.
14. “Life in Pieces,” CBS, 9.27 million.
15. “Madam Secretary,” CBS, 8.97 million.
16. “Supergirl,” CBS, 8.747 million.
17. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 8.746 million.
18. “Mom,” CBS, 8.72 million.
19. “Shades of Blue,” NBC, 8.55 million.
20. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 8.39 million.
Category: News