By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Tom Brady wins in the television ratings, too.
NBC relentlessly promoted the Tampa Bay quarterback's return to New England, and the Bucs-Patriots game reached the biggest "Sunday Night Football" audience in years, the Nielsen company said.
The 26.7 million people who tuned in represented NBC's biggest television audience for the game since 2015. Add in people who streamed it, and the game reached 28 million, the biggest "Sunday Night Football" crowd since 2012, Nielsen said.
Despite that competition, CBS' "60 Minutes" reached 10.3 million people, its largest audience since last January. Viewership was about 12 million for the first part of the show, before the competing football game started and during the story about Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
NBC won the second week of the television season handily, averaging 7.5 million viewers. CBS averaged 5.3 million, ABC had 3,7 million, Fox had 2.1 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and Ion Television had 890,000.
ESPN led cable networks, averaging 2.78 million in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 1.19 million, HGTV had 972,000 and TLC had 832,000.
ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8 million viewer. NBC's "Nightly News" had 6.4 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 4.8 million.
For the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 3, the top 20 prime-time television programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at New England, NBC, 26.75 million.
2. "NFL Pregame" (Sunday), NBC, 20.32 million.
3. "Football Night in America, Part 3," NBC, 14.64 million.
4. NFL Football: Philadelphia at Dallas, ESPN, 12.9 million.
5. "NFL Postgame" (Sunday), Fox, 11.98 million.
6. "60 Minutes," CBS, 10.32 million.
7. "Football Night in America, Part 2," NBC, 9.12 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 8.06 million.
9. NFL Football: Jacksonville at Cincinnati, NFL Network, 8 million.
10. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 7.44 million.
11. "FBI," CBS, 7.37 million.
12. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 7.36 million.
13. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 6.86 million.
14. "NFL Pregame" (Monday), ESPN, 6.85 million.
15. "Chicago Med," NBC, 6.71 million.
16. "La Brea," NBC, 6.37 million.
17. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 6.3 million.
18. "Chicago PD," NBC, 6.22 million.
19. "FBI: International," CBS, 6.04 million.
20. "Survivor," CBS, 5.9 million.
“Scandal” cast will reunite for online script reading for hurricane relief in western North Carolina
The cast of ABC's hit political drama "Scandal" may need to brush up on their snappy, speedy delivery known as "Scandal-pace," because they're reuniting for a good cause. Its stars including Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young will take part in a live virtual script reading on Nov. 17 to raise money for hurricane relief in western North Carolina.
Beginning Friday, fans can go online and donate to reserve a spot for the online reading. Proceeds will benefit United Way of North Carolina. Everyone who donates will be able to take part in a virtual pre-event with the cast and Shonda Rhimes will give an introduction.
Additional guest stars will also be announced. The online fundraising platform Prizeo is also holding a contest where one person who donates online via their site will be selected to read a role from the script with the actors. The winner should not worry about the "Scandal"-pace, assured Young over Zoom.
"Whomever the lucky reader is can read at whatever pace they want," she said.
Young, who played Mellie Young, the first lady and later Republican presidential nominee on "Scandal," was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. She came up with the idea for the effort with a friend and took it to her fellow "Scandal" actors, who all jumped on board. Young said this is the first script reading the cast has all done together since the show ended after seven seasons in 2018.
Which episode they will be reading has not been announced yet.
Young said it's "been devastating" to see so many parts of her hometown badly damaged by Hurricane Helene, which ravaged western North Carolina one month ago.
To research the best use for donations, Young spoke with numerous political leaders, including North... Read More