CBS finished first in total viewership during the opening week of the prime-time television season for the sixth consecutive year, while NBC led for the third consecutive year among young adults.
CBS combined such ratings stalwarts as “The Big Bang Theory” and “NCIS” with “Thursday Night Football” and the premieres of “NCIS: New Orleans” and “Scorpion” to average 10.86 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Sept. 22 and Sunday.
NBC was second, averaging 10.03 million, followed by ABC (8.26 million) and Fox (5.24 million), according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen today.
CBS, NBC and ABC all recorded viewing increases over last season’s premiere week, while Fox’s viewership was down 13.1 percent.
CBS had six of the week’s nine most-watched programs, topped by the 8:31 p.m. Monday episode of “The Big Bang Theory” with 18.24 million viewers, to finish second overall.
CBS also had the most-watched premiere, “NCIS: New Orleans,” which won its 9 p.m. Tuesday time slot and was sixth overall, averaging 17.23 million viewers.
“Scorpion” won its 9-10 p.m. Monday time slot, averaging 13.83 million viewers, finishing ninth overall.
NBC had the week’s most-watched program, the “Sunday Night Football” game between the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints, which averaged 22.68 million viewers. It did not air any premieres.
ABC’s most-watched program was the premiere of “How to Get Away with Murder,” which was eighth for the week, averaging 14.34 million, the most for a 10 p.m. drama debut since Sept. 25, 2012, when the one-season CBS period crime drama “Vegas” averaged 14.85 million viewers.
ABC’s “black-ish,” the week’s only comedy premiere on any of the four major broadcast networks, won its 9:31-10 p.m. Wednesday time period and was 20th for the week, averaging 11.04 million viewers. “black-ish” retained 97 percent of the audience of the lead-in show,“Modern Family.”
ABC’s other premiere, the drama “Forever,” averaged 8.59 million viewers, finishing third in its Monday 10:01-11 p.m. time slot and 34th for the week. A second episode averaged 6.85 million, third in its Tuesday 10-11 p.m. time slot and 47th for the week.
Fox’s lone premiere, the Batman origin series “Gotham,” averaged 8.21 million viewers to finish 39th for the week’s. Fox’s most-watched program was the 26th season premiere of “The Simpsons,” which averaged 8.53 million viewers, putting it 35th for the week.
The live-plus-same day figures are treated with less importance by network executives than they had been in the past because the growing amount of delayed viewing has prompted advertisers to increase acceptance of figures that include delayed viewing.
NBC finished first among viewers ages 18-49, who ABC and Fox also target and advertisers covet because the group watches less television and is harder to reach. NBC’s 3.0 rating among the group was its second highest in six years.
“Sunday Night Football” was the week’s most-watched programs among the group, followed by the nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show, “Thursday Night Football” and the 8 p.m. and 8:31 p.m. Monday episodes of “The Big Bang Theory.”
NBC also led among viewers ages 18-34, 25-54, 12-17 and 2-11. CBS was first among viewers 50 and older, a group it has long dominated.
The ESPN “Monday Night Football” game between the Chicago Bears and New York Jets was the week’s most-watched cable program, averaging 13.27 million viewers, putting it 10th among all prime-time programs.
ESPN was the most-watched cable network for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.91 million viewers.
The week’s most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Thursday episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi Corazon Es Tuyo,” which averaged 4.19 million viewers, 62nd among all prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
As usual, Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 2.9 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.35 million, followed by UniMas (470,000), Estrella TV (220,000) and MundoFox and Azteca America, which both averaged 120,000.
The “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 263rd consecutive week and 310th of the past 311, averaging 8.19 million viewers, followed by ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” (8.03 million) and the “CBS Evening News” anchored by Scott Pelley (6.34 million). The average for did not include Thursday because of NFL coverage.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; CBS’ 8:31 p.m. Monday episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS” and the 8 p.m. Monday episode of “The Big Bang Theory”; NBC’s nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show; CBS’ “NCIS: New Orleans” and “Thursday Night Football”; ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder”; CBS’ “Scorpion”; and ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”
