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    Biden drew most viewers in midst of otherwise quiet TV ratings; Nielsen week in review

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1389 Views
    President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Washington as Vice President Kamala Harris applauds and House speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., looks on. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

    By David Bauder, Media Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) --

    In an otherwise quiet week for television, President Joe Biden was the biggest star.

    An estimated 38.2 million people watched him deliver his first State of the Union speech last week, spread across several networks that carried it. Fox News Channel, where 7.2 million people watched, had the biggest single audience, the Nielsen company said.

    Otherwise, no primetime program exceeded 8 million live viewers. On a typical night, ABC's "World News Tonight" with David Muir had a bigger audience than anything else on TV last week.

    Among individual primetime shows, "60 Minutes" finished on top for the second week in a row, Nielsen said.

    CBS won the week in primetime with an average of 4.6 million viewers. ABC had 3.9 million, NBC had 3.2 million, Fox had 1.9 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 930,000.

    Fox News Channel led the cable networks in primetime with an average of 3.51 million viewers. CNN had 1.81 million, MSNBC had 1.64 million, ESPN had 1.29 million and HGTV had 1.1 million.

    ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.8 million viewers, NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.3 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.1 million.

    For the week of Feb. 28-March 6, the 20 most-watched programs in primetime, their networks and viewerships:

    1. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.99 million.
    2. "State of the Union," Fox News, 7.21 million.
    3. "The Equalizer," CBS, 7.13 million.
    4. "NCIS," CBS, 7.12 million.
    5. "Chicago Med," NBC, 7.05 million.
    6. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 6.89 million.
    7. "State of the Union Preview," Fox News, 6.62 million.
    8. "American Idol," ABC, 6.57 million.
    9. "State of the Union Analysis" (10:10-10:32 p.m. Eastern), Fox News, 6.55 million.
    10. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 6.48 million.
    11. "State of the Union," ABC, 6.3 million.
    12. "State of the Union: Republican Response," Fox News, 5.98 million.
    13. "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 5.91 million.
    14. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.9 million.
    15. "Chicago PD," NBC, 5.81 million.
    16. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 5.7 million.
    17. "Ghosts," CBS, 5.52 million.
    18. "Bob Hearts Abishola," CBS, 5.5 million.
    19. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 5.45 million.
    20. "State of the Union Analysis" (10:46-11 p.m. Eastern), Fox News, 5.44 million.

    Tags:60 MinutesFox News ChannelNielsenPresident Joe BidenState of the Union



    What will happen to CNBC and MSNBC when they no longer have a corporate connection to NBC News?

    Thursday, November 21, 2024
    MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow, left, Lawrence O'Donnell, center, and Chris Matthews take part in a panel discussion at the NBC Universal summer press tour, Aug. 2, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

    Comcast's corporate reorganization means that there will soon be two television networks with "NBC" in their name — CNBC and MSNBC — that will no longer have any corporate connection to NBC News.

    How that affects viewers of those networks, along with the people who work there, still needs to shake out. Their new corporate leader, Mark Lazarus, visited the set of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" as the plan was being announced on Wednesday and spoke to network staff members during a morning conference call to address concerns.

    Comcast is spinning off most of its cable networks, also including USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel, into a separate company. That recognizes how streaming is considered the future and the cable networks are a drag on the bottom line.

    In the space of a lifetime, the networks went from upstarts aside a legacy operation like NBC to profitable superstars to castoffs.

    Questions range from the simple to complex
    Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Universal Media Group, is becoming CEO of the newly-formed company of cable networks, temporarily dubbed "SpinCo." Cesar Conde, who as NBC Universal News Group chairman had oversight of CNBC and MSNBC, will lose those networks from his portfolio, yet remain in charge of NBC News, NBC News Now streaming, Telemundo and the news operations of the NBC-owned local stations.

    The presence of Lazarus and Anand Kini, who will be chief operating officer and chief financial officer of SpinCo, is a good sign for the new company, said Jessica Reif Ehrlich, research analyst for the Bank of America. "You can't dismiss it as getting rid of the crappy assets, because these are talented executives," she said.

    At MSNBC, questions about the future range from the... Read More

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