CBS dominates its rivals again
The CBS network aired nine of last week’s 13 mostwatched programs to finish first in the prime-time ratings race for the eighth consecutive week and 19th time in the 32-week-old season, according to live-plus-sameday figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
CBS averaged 6.21 million viewers for its prime-time programming between April 24 and Sunday, despite not airing original episodes of three of its four mostwatched dramas for the season, “NCIS,” “Bull” and “NCIS: New Orleans.”
NBC was second for the seventh time in eight weeks, averaging 5.32 million viewers. ABC was third for the eighth time in the nine weeks after it aired the Oscars, averaging 4.05 million viewers.
Fox averaged 2.43 million viewers to finish fourth among the broadcast networks for the 12th consecutive week since it aired Super Bowl LI.
The week’s mostwatched program was the CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” which averaged 12.52 million viewers.
ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” was the only other program to average more than 10 million viewers, averaging 10.38 million viewers.
NBC’s most-watched program was the Tuesday episode of “The Voice,” third for the week, averaging 9.63 million viewers.
Fox’s most-watched program was the hip-hop drama “Empire,” 21st for the week, averaging 6.31 million
“Empire” was the week’s third most-watched program by viewers ages 18-49, averaging 2.74 million viewers among the group targeted by Fox, ABC and NBC and coveted by advertisers.
The premiere of the NBC comedy “Great News” was second in its 9-9:30 p.m. slot April 25 and 32nd for the week, averaging 5.13 million viewers. It retained 53.3% of the audience of “The Voice” that preceded it.
Here are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (April 24-30), as compiled by Nielsen. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish during its scheduled telecast or on a playback device the same day. Nielsen estimates there are 289 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.