NBC shows off 1st place talents
“Little Big Shots: Forever Young” has drawn the second-largest audience among the 13 series premieres during the summer 2017 television season, which, along with a 1-2 finish by “America’s Got Talent” and “World of Dance,” made NBC the week’s most-watched network, averaging 4.57 million viewers. “America’s Got Talent” and “World of Dance” have been the most-watched entertainment programs each of the four full weeks of television’s summer season.
“Little Big Shots: Forever Young ” averaged 7.43 million viewers, finishing fourth among the prime-time network and cable programs airing between June 19 and Sunday, according to liveplus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
Only “World of Dance” drew a larger audience for a premiere this summer, 9.71 million on May 30. It had the advantage of following the season premiere of “America’s Got Talent,” which averaged 12.32 million viewers, while the premiere of “Little Big Shots: Forever Young” began NBC’s prime-time programming June 21.
“America’s Got Talent” averaged a season-high 12.74 million viewers. “World of Dance” was second, averaging 7.61 million.
Both of the week’s other premieres aired on ABC. The singing competition “Boy Band” was fifth in its 810 p.m. Thursday time slot, including trailing ESPN’s coverage of the NBA draft, and 60th for the week, averaging 2.92 million viewers.
The premiere of the rebooted version of the off beat 1970s and 1980s talent show “The Gong Show” won its 1011 p.m. Thursday time slot and was 29th for the week, averaging 3.89 million viewers, ABC’s largest audience with original programming in the time slot during the summer since July 23, 2015.
Here are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (June 19-Sunday), 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.