‘NCIS’ benefits as rivals are idle

Valentine’s Day and lack of big sports and awards shows boost CBS scripted series.

With no major awards shows or sporting events to compete against, the CBS action drama “NCIS” became the first scripted program to top the weekly prime-time television ratings during the 2018-19 season.

“NCIS” drew its largest audience since May 8, averaging 13.38 million viewers, to be the most-watched prime-time program airing between Feb. 11 and Sunday, according to live-plus-sameday figures released Wednesday by Nielsen.

“NCIS” was helped to the top by CBS’ decision to not air an original episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” television’s most-watched nonsports series.

“The Big Bang Theory” airs Thursday, which last week was Valentine’s Day, when viewership customarily is lower because of the larger number of people leaving their homes to celebrate.

The only non-sports programming to top prime-time ratings during the first 20 weeks of the season were the Jan. 27 edition of the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” and the Grammy Awards on Feb. 10.

The NBC competition “America’s Got Talent: The Champions,” was the week’s only other prime-time program to top 10 million viewers, averaging 10.45 million viewers, the largest audience during its six-week run.

CBS had four of the week’s five most-watched programs to finish first for the fifth consecutive week and the 10th time in the season.

NBC was second, averaging 5.19 million viewers, followed by ABC, which averaged 3.76 million, and Fox, which averaged 3.57 million.

The week’s only premiere on the four major broadcast networks, the Fox legal drama “Proven Innocent,” was fifth in its Friday 9-10 p.m. time slot and 67th for the week, averaging 3.08 million viewers.

TNT’s coverage of the NBA All-Star Game was the week’s most-watched cable program, averaging 5.77 million viewers, 27th overall.