‘Thrones,’ ‘Talent’ reign
The HBO fantasy drama and the NBC competition draw large audiences.
The HBO series “Game of Thrones” set a viewership record for the second consecutive week and the third time this season while NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the most watched prime-time television program for the fifth consecutive week last week.
The fantasy drama averaged 10.72 million viewers Sunday, erasing the previous record of 10.17 million set a week earlier, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen. The record audience before this season was 8.89 million for the sixth season finale on June 26, 2016.
Each of the season’s five episodes is among the five most watched during the series seven-season run. They have also finished second each week behind “America’s Got Talent” and been the most watched cable program.
“America’s Got Talent” averaged 13.32 million viewers to be the most watched prime-time program between Aug. 7 and Sunday. The audience was the series’ second-largest for the season, behind the 13.33 million average a week earlier.
“Game of Thrones” was the week’s most watched program among viewers ages 18-49, averaging 6.39 million viewers among the group targeted by ABC, Fox, NBC and many cable networks and coveted by advertisers.
“America’s Got Talent” was second among the group, averaging 3.52 million, followed by the season finale of “The Bachelorette,” which averaged 2.73 million, and the season finale of NBC’s “World of Dance,” which averaged 2.45 million.
NBC was the most watched network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 4.87 million viewers. It had three of the week’s five most watched programs — “America’s Got Talent,” “World of Dance,” third for the week, averaging 8 million viewers, and a two-hour “America’s Got Talent” highlights show, which was fifth for the week, averaging 7.02 million viewers.
CBS finished second for the seventh time in eight weeks, averaging 3.99 million viewers. Its most watched programs were “60 Minutes,” sixth for the week, averaging 7.01 million, and the Wednesday and Sunday editions of “Big Brother,” which were seventh and eighth for the week, averaging 6.4 million and 6.22 million.
ABC was third for the eighth consecutive week, averaging 3.95 million viewers. Its most watched program was the season finale of “The Bachelorette,” which averaged a season-high 7.58 million viewers to finish fourth for the week.
Fox was fourth among the broadcast networks for the 27th consecutive week since airing Super Bowl LI, averaging 1.72 million viewers for its 15 hours of primetime programming.
Fox’s most watched program was “MasterChef,” 31st for the week, averaging 3.32 million viewers. “MasterChef” was 16th among viewers ages 18-49, averaging 1.17 million viewers.
NBC, CBS and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming for the week.
Fox News Channel was the most watched cable network in prime time for the 12th consecutive week, 17th time in 20 weeks and 26th in the past 30, averaging 2.09 million viewers.
MSNBC was second for the eighth time in 10 weeks, averaging 1.72 million viewers.
USA Network finished third, averaging 1.46 million.
CNN was seventh for the second consecutive week, averaging 1.06 million viewers. are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (Aug. 7-13), 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.