By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Competition at athletic venues dominated the agenda for television viewers last week, but none was as popular as a competition on stage.
"America's Got Talent," which is well-established as TV's favorite live show of the summer, reached seven million viewers last week with auditions for its 16th season on NBC, the Nielsen company said.
ABC found some viewers for its premiere of "When Nature Calls," where Helen Mirren narrates comedic film clips from the wild, a reboot of a BBC series.
Otherwise, the NBA conference finals and Olympic trials drew many TV viewers.
NBC won the week with an average of 3.5 million viewers in primetime. CBS had 3 million, ABC had 2.7 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.2 million, Ion Television had 1.02 million and Telemundo had 990,000.
ESPN won a tight race for cable supremacy, averaging 2.19 million viewers in primetime. TNT had 2.18 million, Fox News Channel had 2.15 million, MSNBC had 1.32 million and HGTV had 1.13 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" was the most popular evening news show, averaging 7.8 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 6.3 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 4.7 million.
For the week of June 21-27, the 20 most popular programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. "America's Got Talent," NBC, 7.01 million.
2. "Olympic Trials: Women's Gymnastics" (Sunday), NBC, 5.75 million.
3. NBA Conference Finals: Milwaukee at Atlanta (Sunday), TNT, 5.6 million.
4. NBA Conference Finals: Phoenix at L.A. Clippers (Saturday), ESPN, 5.54 million.
5. NBA Conference Finals: Phoenix at L.A. Clippers (Thursday), ESPN, 5.33 million.
6. NBA Conference Finals: Atlanta at Milwaukee (Wednesday), TNT, 5.3 million.
7. NBA Conference Finals: L.A. Clippers at Phoenix (Tuesday), ESPN, 5.27 million.
8. "60 Minutes," CBS, 5.04 million.
9. "Olympic Trials: Women's Gymnastics" (Friday), NBC, 4.59 million.
10. "Celebrity Family Feud," ABC, 4.38 million.
11. "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 4.35 million.
12. "NCIS," CBS, 4.16 million.
13. "Olympic Trials: Track & Field" (Monday), NBC, 3.97 million.
14. "United States of Al," CBS, 3.83 million.
15. NBA Conference Finals: Atlanta at Milwaukee (Friday), TNT, 3.7 million.
16. "When Nature Calls," ABC, 3.698 million.
17. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 3.67 million.
18. "FBI," CBS, 3.65 million.
19. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 3.58 million.
20. "The $100,000 Pyramid," ABC, 3.56 million.
Sony reports healthy profits on strong sales of sensors and games
Sony's profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.
Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).
Tokyo-based Sony's latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.
Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.
Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.
The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included "SOS" by SZA, David Gilmour's "Luck and Strange" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lost Corner."
One area where Sony's business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.
Among the recent hit films from Sony was "It Ends With Us," a romantic drama based on a novel.
Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.
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