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    Football games send viewers to TV on cold weekend; Nielsen week in review

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1122 Views
    Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt, center, celebrates with fans after returning a fumble for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

    By David Bauder, Media Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) --

    The NFL wild card games and the NCAA football championship gathered millions of people in front of their television sets on a cold winter weekend.

    An average of 30.5 million people watched the NFL's wild card games on television and digitally over the weekend, which the league said was up 21% over the same games in 2021.

    Meanwhile, Georgia's victory over Alabama for the NCAA football championship last week reached 22.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. That allowed the NCAA to rebound from the lackluster ratings of the New Year's Eve semifinals, which featured two non-competitive games.

    Boosted by their wild card games, CBS averaged 10 million viewers and NBC had 6.8 million in primetime last week. ABC averaged 2.7 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 900,000.

    ESPN averaged 3.69 million viewers in prime time, Fox News Channel had 2.24 million, MSNBC had 1.2 million, HGTV had 1.08 million and Hallmark had 978,000.

    ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news race, averaging 9 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 8.1 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.8 million.

    For the week of Jan. 10-16, the 20 most popular programs in primetime, their viewerships and networks:

    NFL Wild Card: Pittsburgh at Kansas City, NBC, 28.94 million.
    2. NFL Wild Card: New England at Buffalo, CBS, 26.37.
    3. "Wild Card Post Game" (Sunday), CBS, 25.5 million.
    4. NCAA Football Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, ESPN, 22.26 million.
    5. "Wild Card Pre Game" (Sunday), NBC, 19.64 million.
    6. "NCAA Championship Post Game," ESPN, 18.37 million.
    7. "NCAA Championship Pre Game," ESPN, 13.78 million.
    8. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.29 million.
    9. "FBI," CBS, 8.45 million.
    10. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 7.7 million.
    11. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 7.41 million.
    12. "Chicago Med," NBC, 7.33 million.
    13. "Ghosts," CBS, 6.48 million.
    14. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 6.44 million.
    15. "FBI: International," CBS, 6.29 million.
    16. "Chicago PD," NBC, 5.81 million.
    17. "Magnum, P.I., CBS, 5.77 million.
    18. "FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 5.56 million.
    19. "United States of Al," CBS, 5.48 million.
    20. "911: Lone Star," Fox, 5.03 million.

    Tags:CBSESPNNCAANFLNielsen



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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