ABC’s ‘Roseanne,’ CBS No. 1
For the seventh consecutive week, CBS was the most-watched network, while “Roseanne” was the most-watched program for the fourth time in the four weeks it’s aired this season.
CBS had four of the five programs to average more than 10 million viewers and seven of the top nine, averaging 6.72 million viewers for its prime-time programming between April 16 and Sunday, according to live-plussame-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.
NBC was second, averaging 4.77 million viewers, and ABC third, averaging 4.41 million.
Fox finished fourth among the major broadcast networks for the 13th consecutive week, averaging 2.97 million viewers for its 15 hours, 15 minutes of primetime programming. Its most-watched program was the hip-hop drama “Empire” which finished 31st overall, averaging 5.412 million viewers.
CBS, NBC and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming for ratings purposes.
“Roseanne” averaged 13.27 million viewers, a 3.6% decrease from the previous week, its smallest week-toweek drop-off of the season.
NBA playoff coverage lifted TNT into first among cable networks, averaging 3.06 million viewers, a 105% increase from a week earlier when it finished third. Fox News Channel averaged 2.374 million viewers to finish second, one spot lower than the previous week.
MSNBC averaged 1.94 million to drop to third, one place lower than the previous week.
The week’s mostwatched cable program was Game 4 of the Cleveland Cavaliers-Indiana Pacers first-round series Sunday, which averaged 6.07 million viewers, 24th overall.
Viewership for the AMC horror series “Fear the Walking Dead” dropped 25% to 3.07 million from its fourth season premiere a week earlier when it had the eighth season finale of “The Walking Dead” preceding it. are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (April 16-22), 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 on the same day. Nielsen estimates there are 289 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership listed in millions.