‘Talent’ wins, ‘Fear’ stalks it

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” extended its streak as prime-time television’s most-watched entertainment program for the 13th consecutive time last week, despite record viewership for the premiere of “Fear the Walking Dead.”

The Tuesday two-hour edition of “America’s Got Talent” averaged 10.86 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday. It has been the mostwatched entertainment program every week it has aired this summer.

Sunday’s premiere of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” drew the second largest audience among the prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Aug. 17 and Sunday. The show’s 10.13 million viewers represented the largest audience for a premiere in cable television history.

The week’s only other program to average more than 9 million viewers was Wednesday’s hour-long “America’s Got Talent” episode, which averaged 9.12 million viewers.

“Fear the Walking Dead” was the week’s mostwatched program among viewers ages 18 to 49, averaging 6.3 million viewers among the group coveted by advertisers.

The Tuesday edition of “America’s Got Talent” was second among the group, averaging 2.89 million viewers, followed by the Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday editions of CBS’ “Big Brother,” which averaged 2.69 million, 2.59 million and 2.58 million.

CBS had 10 of the week’s 14 most-watched programs. CBS’ most-watched program was “NCIS,” fourth overall averaging 8.34 million viewers. NBC was second for the week, averaging 4.53 million viewers.