CBS, ABC finish 1-2 again
The season finale of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is the week’s most-watched show.
CBS had each of the three most-watched programs for the second week in a row, helping it to its 11th consecutive weekly primetime ratings victory since ABC aired the Oscars and the 27th in the 33-week-old season.
CBS averaged 8.1 million viewers for its prime-time programming between May 4 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.
ABC was second for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 6.57 million. NBC was third for the fourth straight week, averaging 5.44 million. Fox (3.19 million) was fourth among the major broadcast networks for the 15th consecutive week.
The season finale of “The Big Bang Theory” averaged 14.63 million viewers, making it the most-watched program. “NCIS” was second, with 14.50 million, followed by “NCIS: New Orleans,” which averaged 13.36 million.
ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” (12.43 million) and its results show (10.29 million) were the only other programs to average more than 10 million viewers).
CBS’ dominance didn’t end with “NCIS: New Orleans.” “Criminal Minds,” “The Good Wife” and “Survivor” finished seventh through ninth, extending CBS’ streak of having at least five of the 10 mostwatched broadcast programs to 21 weeks.
NBC’s most-watched program was the Monday edition of the singing competition “The Voice,” which was sixth overall, averaging 9.90 million.
Fox’s most-watched program was “American Idol,” 27th for the week, averaging 6.93 million viewers.
ABC was the mostwatched network among viewers ages 18 to 49 for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.08 million viewers among the group targeted by ABC, Fox and NBC and coveted by advertisers because it watches less television and is harder to reach.
CBS was second in the group, averaging 1.7 million, followed by NBC (1.46 million), cable’s TNT (1.44 million) and Fox (1.22 million).
“The Big Bang Theory” was the most-watched broadcast program among the group, averaging 4.65 million viewers. ABC’s “Modern Family” was second, with 3.74 million, followed by the Monday episode of “The Voice” (2.94 million) and ABC’s “black-ish” (2.83 million). Cable figures were not available.
The HBO fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” returned to the top of cable ratings after a one-week absence, averaging 6.56 million viewers, 35th among the week’s prime-time cable and broadcast programs.
NBA playoff coverage made TNT the mostwatched cable network for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.88 million viewers. are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (May 4 to 10) 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.