NBC aired all three of last week’s prime-time programs that averaged more than 9 million viewers, helping the network to its second weekly ratings victory during television’s summer season.
Nielsen figures released Wednesday show 15.59 million tuned in for NBC’s coverage of the 66th annual Primetime Emmy Awards hosted by Seth Meyers, making it the most-watched prime-time program between Aug. 25 and Sunday, though viewership was down 12.2 percent from last year’s ceremony which aired on CBS.
The 2013 ceremony had several advantages over this year’s, including airing in September, when overall viewing is higher, and following an NFL game.
Despite the drop, the audience was still the second largest since 2007, and was the largest for a night of prime-time television since March 2, when ABC aired the Oscars.
After five consecutive weeks of 1-2 finishes, “America’s Got Talent” episodes finished second and third for the week. The Tuesday episode averaged 9.52 million viewers and the 9 p.m. Wednesday episode was third, with 9.46 million.
“America’s Got Talent” also produced NBC’s fourth-most watched program, as the 8 p.m. Wednesday rerun was 15th for the week, averaging 5.55 million viewers.
NBC’s next most-watched program was the cooking competition “Food Fighters,” which was 25th among the week’s broadcast and cable programs, averaging 4.7 million viewers.
NBC averaged 5.84 million viewers for its prime-time programming during the week, its most since the week of April 28-May 4, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.
NBC’s only other victory during the 14 full weeks of television’s summer season was the week of July 28-Aug. 3, when its programming included the NFL/Hall of Fame Game. CBS has won 10 weeks and ABC two, both during the NBA Finals.
CBS finished second after winning nine of the previous 10 weeks, averaging 5.26 million viewers. It had of the 11 most-watched programs after the top three, led by “NCIS,” which averaged 8.99 million viewers, finishing fourth overall.
ABC was third for the 10th time in the 11 weeks since the end of the NBA Finals, averaging 3.97 million viewers.
ABC’s most-watched programs were the “Saturday Night Football” game between Florida State and Oklahoma State, ninth for the week with 6.03 million viewers, and “Bachelor in Paradise,” 20th for the week, averaging 5.07
million.
Fox was fourth among the English-language networks and sixth overall for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.26 million viewers, trailing the Spanish-language Univision network (2.78 million) and the cable all-sports network ESPN (2.42 million).
Fox’s most-watched programs were “MasterChef,” 16th for the week with 5.47 million viewers, and “Hotel Hell,” 50th for the week with 3.84 million.
NBC also finished first among viewers ages 18-49, the group ABC and Fox also target and advertisers covet.
The Primetime Emmy Awards was the week’s most-watched program among the group, averaging 5.32 million viewers.
The Wednesday episode of CBS’ “Big Brother” was second, averaging 2.94 million; followed by the VH1 documentary series “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” (2.69 million); the Tuesday edition of “America’s Got Talent” (2.68 million); the Thursday edition of “Big Brother” (2.57 million); “MasterChef” (2.53 million); and the Sunday edition of “Big Brother” (2.5 million).
The combination of college football and auto racing made ESPN the most-watched cable network for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.42 million viewers.
ESPN’s coverage of Sunday’s Oral-B USA 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race was the week’s most-watched cable program, averaging 5.21 million viewers, putting it 18th among all prime-time programs.
The LSU-Wisconsin college football game that aired Saturday on ESPN was third among the week’s cable programs and 26th overall, averaging 4.68 million viewers.
The week’s most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Monday episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi Corazon Es Tuyo,” which averaged 3.92 million viewers, 47th among all prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
As usual, Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 2.78 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.3 million, followed by UniMas (470,000), Estrella TV (180,000) and Azteca America and MundoFox (100,000 each).
The “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 259th consecutive week and 306th of the past 307, averaging 7.42 million viewers. The average does not include the Aug. 25 broadcast which were pre-empted or aired at different times than usual because of NBC’s Primetime Emmy Awards coverage.
In her last week as anchor, ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” was second, averaging 7.38 million.
The “CBS Evening News” finished third for the 413th consecutive week and 168th since Scott Pelley became anchor, averaging 6.12 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s coverage of the 66th annual Primetime Emmy Awards; the 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday editions of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “NCIS,” “60 Minutes,” the Wednesday edition of “Big Brother,” “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “Under the Dome”; ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” game between Florida State and Oklahoma State; and CBS’ “Unforgettable.”
