By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Here's a safe bet: Two men's basketball games featuring St. Peter's University landed among the 20 most-watched television programs in primetime last week for the first time ever.
The NCAA tournament's underdog darlings hit the big time with their victories over Kentucky and Murray State, the Nielsen company said.
Fans are obviously intrigued by their story, since the Jersey City school's second game against Murray State had more viewers than the game with Kentucky, one of the NCAA's blue bloods.
The CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" has a winning streak that has now reached four straight weeks as the most popular program.
The opening round of the men's NCAA tourney led CBS to a dominant win in the ratings, as the network averaged 5.5 million viewers in primetime. ABC had 3.2 million, NBC had 3.1 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 930,000.
Fox News Channel was the most popular cable network, averaging 2.54 million viewers in primetime. TBS had 1.79 million, TNT had 1.63 million, Tru TV had 1.12 million and HGTV had 1.09 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.9 million viewers. The "NBC Nightly News" had 6.7 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.3 million.
For the week of March 14-20, the 20 most-watched programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.07 million.
2. "NCIS," CBS, 7.55 million.
3. "The Equalizer," CBS, 7.08 million.
4. "NCAA Basketball Pregame" (Saturday), CBS, 6.79 million.
5. NCAA Basketball Tournament: St. Peter's vs. Murray St., CBS, 6.69 million.
6. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 6.66 million.
7. "Chicago Med," NBC, 6.35 million.
8. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 5.8 million.
9. "Bob Hearts Abishola," CBS, 5.71 million.
10. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 5.6 million.
11. NCAA Basketball Tournament: St. Peter's vs. Kentucky, CBS, 5.46 million.
12. "American Idol," ABC, 5.4 million.
13. "Chicago PD," NBC, 5.33 million.
14. "NCIS: Hawai'i," CBS, 5.1 million.
15. "Survivor," CBS, 5.06 million.
16. NCAA Basketball Tournament: Davidson vs. Michigan St., CBS, 4.96 million.
17. "The Bachelor," ABC, 4.73 million.
18. "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 4.72 million.
19. "FBI," CBS, 4.65 million.
20. "911: Lone Star," Fox, 4.64 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