‘ Thrones’ finale tops own record

The HBO show has 12.07 million viewers, but ‘ America’s Got Talent’ draws more.

The HBO fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” completed its seventh season with its fourth viewership record.

Sunday’s season f inale averaged 12.07 million viewers, breaking its previous record of 10.72 million viewers set two weeks earlier, according to live- plus- sameday f igures released Tuesday by Nielsen. An unknown additional amount of viewers watched the episode on digital platforms.

The season’s f irst and fourth episodes had also set records as the series’ mostwatched episode. The largest audience for a “Game of Thrones” episode before this season was 8.89 million for the sixth season f inale on June 26, 2016.

Despite the record viewership for “Thrones,” NBC’s two- hour “America’s Got Talent” competition show was the most- watched program for the seventh consecutive week, averaging 12.59 million viewers.

The hourlong Wednesday results show was third among prime- time broadcast and cable programs airing between Aug. 21 and Sunday, averaging 10.84 million viewers.

“Game of Thrones” was the week’s most- watched program among viewers ages 18- 49, averaging 7.32 million viewers among the group targeted by ABC, Fox, NBC and many cable networks and coveted by advertisers.

The Tuesday and Wednesday “America’s Got Talent” episodes were second and third among viewers age 18- 49, averaging 3.30 million viewers and 2.59 million, followed by NBC’s coverage of Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings- San Francisco 49ers NFL preseason game, which averaged 2.45 million viewers, and the Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday episodes of CBS’ “Big Brother,” which averaged 2.35 million, 2.28 million and 2.24 million.

With the two “America’s Got Talent” episodes and the Minnesota- San Francisco game finishing second, third and fourth behind “Game of Thrones,” NBC was the most- watched network for the seventh consecutive week, averaging 5.46 million viewers.

CBS f inished second for the ninth time in 10 weeks, averaging 4.2 million viewers, with five of the week’s 10 most- watched programs, topped by a rerun of the news magazine “60 Minutes,” f ifth for the week, averaging 7.16 million viewers.

ABC was third for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 3.14 million viewers.

Here are the combined rankings for national prime- time network and cable television last week ( Aug. 21- 27), 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.