In a week with few first-run scripted programs, CBS had each of the 12 most-watched non-football prime-time shows to win the ratings race last week for the third week in a row and 11th time in the 14-week- old season.
CBS averaged 6.09 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Dec. 22 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released today by Nielsen.
NBC was second, averaging 5.87 million. Cable’s ESPN averaged 4.28 million, topping ABC, which averaged 4.12 million, and Fox, which averaged 3.53 million.
CBS’ most-watched program was “60 Minutes Presents,” which was sixth overall, averaging 11.05 million viewers for rebroadcasts of reports on Pope Francis and the Vatican Library.
CBS also had the most-watched scripted program, a rerun of “NCIS,” seventh overall, averaging 10.51 million, and the most-watched comedy, the Monday rerun of “The Big Bang Theory,” 10th overall, averaging 8.62 million.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers was the week’s most-watched program, averaging 20.71 million viewers.
An NFL game has been the most-watched prime-time program 16 of the past 17 weeks, with only Game 7 of baseball’s World Series interrupting that streak.
All three of last week’s other programs to average more than 12 million viewers were football-related.
Fox’s 14-minute NFL postgame show, “The OT,” was second for the week, averaging 16.18 million; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Denver Broncos and Bengals third averaging 16.03 million; and NBC’s nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show fourth, averaging 15.14 million.
CBS also had a half-hour of football programming, the 20-minute runover of its NFL coverage into prime time and 10-minute NFL postgame show. The viewership figure for the NFL runover was not immediately available. It is not considered a separate program, but is included in the weekly averages.
CBS’ 10-minute NFL postgame show averaged 5.15 million viewers, 29th for the week.
The 46-minute NFL runover on Fox averaged 30.25 million viewers.
NBC’s most-watched non-football program was a rerun of “Dateline Friday,” which was 23rd overall, averaging 5.61 million.
ABC’s most-watched program was the Christmas Day rebroadcast of the 1966 animated special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” 19th for the week, averaging 5.96 million viewers.
Fox’s most-watched program was a rerun of “The Simpsons” originally broadcast Oct. 5, which was 22nd for the week, averaging 5.61 million.
NBC finished first among viewers ages 18-49 for the seventh time in eight weeks and 11th time this season.
Each of the five most-watched shows in the group were NFL-related.
“Sunday Night Football” was first, averaging 8.33 million, followed by “The OT” (6.53 million); “Monday Night Football” (6.51 million); ‘Sunday Night Football” kickoff show (6.25 million) and the 24-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America” (4.62 million).
ABC and CBS both broadcast 22 hours of prime-time programming for ratings purposes, NBC 21 1/2 hours and Fox 15 hours.
ESPN returned to the top of the cable ratings after a one-week absence, averaging 4.28 million viewers for its 15th victory in the past 16 weeks.
The week’s most-watched non-football cable program was the TNT drama “The Librarians,” which was third among cable programs and 42nd overall, averaging 4.1 million viewers.
ESPN’s coverage of the Holiday Bowl game between USC and Nebraska was second among cable programs and 17th overall, averaging 6.8 million viewers.
The week’s most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Tuesday episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi Corazon Es Tuyo,” which averaged 3.62 million viewers, 53rd among all prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
As usual, Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 2.31 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.25 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 620,000, Estrella TV which averaged 280,000, MundoFox, which averaged 180,000 and Azteca America, which averaged 80,000.
The “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 276th consecutive week and 323rd of the past 324, averaging 9.43 million viewers.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was second, averaging 8.38 million and the “CBS Evening News” third, averaging 7.3 million. Averages for all three newscasts only included their Monday and Tuesday broadcasts.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; Fox’s 14-minute NFL postgame show “The OT”; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; NBC’s nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show; the 24-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America”; CBS’ “60 Minutes Presents,” “NCIS,” “Undercover Boss,” “NCIS: Los Angeles” and the Monday rerun of “The Big Bang Theory.”
