CBS holds on to lead
The network marks six straight weeks at No. 1, with ABC and NBC following.
CBS won six of seven nights last week, just as it had a week earlier, to finish first in the prime-time television ratings for the sixth consecutive week and 13th time in the 29-week-old season.
Even without an original episode of television’s mostwatched drama, “NCIS,” CBS had four of last week’s five prime-time programs to average more than 10 million viewers and averaged 7.2 million viewers for its primetime programming between April 9 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.
ABC was second, averaging 4.91 million viewers, and NBC third, averaging 4.66 million.
Fox finished fourth among the major broadcast networks for the 12th consecutive week, averaging 2.61 million viewers.
CBS’ customary dominance among series programming was bolstered by the Academy of Country Music Awards, which averaged 12.06 million viewers — its largest audience since 2015 — finishing third for the week and first among Sunday’s programs. Viewership was up 10.5% over last year’s ceremony, which averaged 10.91 million viewers.
“The Big Bang Theory” was CBS’ most-watched program, averaging 12.77 million viewers to finish second. “Roseanne” was the most-watched program for the third time in the three weeks it has aired this season, averaging 13.77 million viewers. Viewership was down 25.4% from the season premiere, which averaged 18.45 million viewers, and 10.6% from the second episode, which averaged 15.4 million viewers.
George Stephanopoulos’ exclusive interview with former FBI Director James Comey averaged 9.87 million viewers, the largest audience for an ABC prime-time news program since the April 24, 2015, interview with Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner; it came in sixth for the week and second in its Sunday 10-11 p.m. time slot behind the Academy of Country Music Awards.
The week’s mostwatched cable program was the eighth-season finale of AMC horror series “The Walking Dead,” which averaged 7.92 million viewers, 11th overall. Fox News Channel returned to the top of the cable ratings after a threeweek absence, averaging 2.59 million viewers. MSNBC was second and TNT finish third. Here are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (April 9-15), 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.