By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Even at a time football generally dominates television ratings, the long Thanksgiving Day weekend was notable.
CBS' turkey day telecast of the Dallas Cowboys against the Las Vegas Raiders reached 37.8 million viewers, the biggest audience for an NFL regular season game since Thanksgiving 1993, the Nielsen company said.
Meanwhile, Michigan's victory over Ohio State in the Big 10's annual rivalry game was seen by 15.9 million people on Saturday afternoon. That's the most-watched regular season college football game since LSU-Alabama two years ago, Nielsen said.
It was also the biggest audience for a college football game on Fox ever, the network said.
For the week in primetime, NBC led with an average of 6.8 million viewers. CBS had 4.8 million, Fox had 3.4 million, ABC had 3.2 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 990,000 and Telemundo had 840,000.
ESPN led the cable networks, averaging 2.83 million viewers in primetime. Fox News Channel had 2.11 million, Hallmark had 2.01 million, Paramount had 1.18 million and TBS had 888,000.
Nielsen did not immediately report evening news ratings.
For the week of Nov. 22-28, the top 20 programs in primetime, their networks and viewerships:
1. NFL Football: Buffalo at New Orleans, NBC, 19.38 million.
2. NFL Football: Cleveland at Baltimore, NBC, 16.23 million.
3. "NFL Post-Game," CBS, 15.19 million.
4. "NFL Pregame," NBC, 12.24 million.
5. "The OT," Fox, 11.7 million.
6. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Tampa Bay, ESPN, 10.35 million.
7. "Football Night in America," NBC, 8.48 million.
8. "Yellowstone," Paramount, 7.89 million.
9. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.56 million.
10. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 6.57 million.
11. College Football: Oklahoma at Oklahoma St., ABC, 6.49 million.
12. "One Last Time: Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett," CBS, 6.38 million.
13. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 6.34 million.
14. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 6.33 million.
15. "The Equalizer," CBS, 5.94 million.
16. "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 5.64 million.
17. "Survivor," CBS, 5.54 million.
18. "NFL Pregame," ESPN, 5.43 million.
19. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" (Monday), Fox News, 5.05 million.
20. "FBI," CBS, 5.04 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