Hurricane Irma set records for The Weather Channel, too

NEW YORK — Hurricane Irma was a recordsetter for The Weather Channel, too.

The Nielsen company said an average of 3.29 million people watched the network on Sunday as the deadly storm blew over Florida. Meteorologists were stationed all over the state, offering live shots in the intense wind and rain.

The Weather Channel’s previous record was only a day earlier, with the 2.82 million people who watched the storm approach on Saturday. Before that, the standard came with the 2.48 million people who watched Hurricane Irene in 2011.

“The fact we achieved our highest ratings in the history of The Weather Channel during Irma is a testament to the trust we have built with our viewers for delivering important, life- saving information when they need it most,” said network CEO Dave Shull. “I am so proud of our staff for their hard work during this storm.”

More than 10 million people watched either The Weather Channel or the three cable news networks on Sunday night, and TWC beat CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. The Weather Channel had 3.54 million viewers in prime time, compared with 205,000 viewers on the same night a year ago, Nielsen said.

Despite that coverage, and with much of Florida out of power, Nielsen estimated nearly 24.4 million people watched the NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants Sunday night. That was even higher than the opening Sunday- night game in 2016.

With two prime- time football games, NBC easily won the week, averaging 10.5 million viewers. CBS averaged 4.6 million viewers in prime time, Fox had 4.4 million, ABC had 4.2 million, Telemundo had 1.6 million, Univision had 1.5 million,