‘The Voice’ propels NBC
The competition series’ spring premiere helped the network to end the week at No. 1.
Three episodes of “The Voice” and the season premiere of “Little Big Shots” combined to sweep the top four spots in the weekly prime-time ratings to help NBC to its first victory since early January.
In a week when President Donald Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress disrupted Tuesday’s schedules, and CBS did not air original episodes of its five most-watched scripted series for the season, NBC averaged 7.26 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Feb. 27 and Sunday for its seventh victory in the 24-week-old season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday. The victory was NBC’s first during the official season without an NFL telecast since the week of March 7-13, 2016.
CBS averaged 6.07 million viewers to finish second, are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (Feb. 27-March 5), 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. followed among the broadcast networks by ABC, which averaged 3.18 million, and Fox, which averaged 2.43 million.
Trump’s speech averaged 47.74-million viewers across 11 broadcast and cable networks. The first speech to a joint session of Congress by then-President Obama in 2009 averaged 52.37-million viewers.
“The Voice’s” two-hour spring season premiere Feb. 27 was the week’s mostwatched program on a single channel, averaging 13.03 million viewers, the singing showdown’s most-watched episode since March 8, 2016.
Hourlong episodes of “The Voice” Feb. 28 and March 2 were third and fourth, averaging 11.35 million and 10.69 million.
The second-season premiere of the alternative comedy/variety series “Little Big Shots” was second for the week, averaging 11.72 million.
Both of NBC’s premieres won their slots. “Taken” was first in 10-11 p.m. Feb. 27 and 20th for the week, averaging 7.45-million viewers. “Chicago Justice” won its 10-11 p.m. time slot Wednesday and was 14th for the week, averaging 8.73 million.