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.
Jean Smart, Ariana Grande, Michael Keaton among hosts for “SNL” season 50
Fresh off her Emmys win, Jean Smart will kick off the landmark 50th season of "Saturday Night Live."
NBC on Thursday announced the lineup of hosts for the season, which premieres Sept. 28. Joining Smart on the first show will be Jelly Roll as the musical act. He was also at the Emmys, singing during the ceremony's in memoriam segment.
It will be Smart's first time hosting "SNL."
Comedian Nate Bargatze will host on Oct. 5, with Coldplay as the musical guest.
Ariana Grande will host Oct. 12, with musical guest Stevie Nicks.
"Beetlejuice" star Michael Keaton will host on Oct. 19, the last show before Halloween, and Billie Eilish will be that night's musical guest.
The host on Nov. 2 will be "SNL" alum John Mulaney, with breakout sensation Chappell Roan as the music guest.
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