A current TV funny lady, a vintage one and a time-honored Christmas movie won over viewers in the run-up to the holiday.
A preview of Ellen DeGeneres’ new NBC primetime game show, “Ellen’s Game of Games,” and CBS’ pair of “I Love Lucy” episodes starring Lucille Ball landed in the top 20 last week, Nielsen said Wednesday.
A Christmas Eve broadcast of “It’s a Wonderful Life” on NBC was the week’s top-rated holiday movie.
But it took football and multiple choruses of “The Voice” to power NBC to No. 1 in total viewers among the networks, giving it its sixth win in the last seven weeks.
In the fierce morning show competition, a Matt Lauer-less “Today” continued to thrive, tallying its fourth straight win among total viewers and advertiser-favored young adults.
Veteran “Today” host Lauer was fired from the NBC show following sexual misconduct allegations.
NBC won the week in primetime, averaging 6.85 million viewers. CBS was second with 5.57 million, ABC had 3.33 million, Fox had 2.87 million, Univision had 1.31 million, ION Television had 1.21 million, CW had 930,000 and Telemundo had 920,000.
ESPN topped the cable networks with an average 2.52 million viewers, followed closely by Hallmark with 2.51 million. Fox News Channel had 2.21 million, Freeform had 1.68 million and MSNBC had 1.55 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” claimed the top spot, averaging 8.91 million total viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.84 million and “CBS Evening News” had 6.51 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 18-24. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Saturday Night Football: Minnesota at Green Bay, NBC, 15.29 million.
2. “The OT,” Fox, 12.76 million
3. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 11.32 million.
4. “Saturday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 11.023 million.
5. “The Voice (Monday),” NBC, 11.022 million.
6. “The Voice (Tuesday),” NBC, 10.91 million.
7. NFL Regular Season: Atlanta at Tampa Bay, ESPN, 9.46 million.
8. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 9.42 million.
9. “Mom,” CBS, 8.85 million.
10. “Survivor,” CBS, 8.73 million.
11. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 8.04 million.
12. “The Voice (Tuesday),” NBC, 7.91 million.
13. “Ellen’s Game of Games,” NBC, 7.25 million.
14. “Life in Pieces,” CBS, 6.72 million.
15. “I Love Lucy Christmas Special,” CBS, 6.5 million.
16. “Kevin Can Wait,” CBS, 6.4 million
17. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.29 million.
18. “S.W.A.T.,” CBS, 6.28 million.
19. “Survivor Reunion,” CBS, 5.97 million.
20. “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” CBS, 5.83 million.
ABC and ESPN are 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.
Category: News