ABC’s “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” was the most-watched entertainment program for the second time in the two weeks it has aired, including topping each of the three elements of NBC’s “Chicago” franchise, which were airing for the first time since Nov. 18, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen this week..
With comedian Drew Carey and actresses Teri Hatcher and Chrissy Metz playing for charities, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” averaged 7.842 million viewers, eighth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Jan. 11 and Sunday and second among non-sports programs.
Viewership was down 3.8% from the 8.149-million average of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’s” premiere one week earlier. Nearly all programs decline in viewership from their first episode to their second.
Just like in its first week, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” did not have to compete with original episodes of the season’s two most-watched entertainment programs — CBS’ “NCIS” and “FBI” — to be the week’s most-watched entertainment program.
“Chicago Med” was the week’s most-watched scripted program, averaging 7.622 million viewers, ninth for the week, second among entertainment programs and third among non-sports programs.
“Chicago Fire” which followed, was 10th for the week, averaging 7.27 million viewers. “Chicago P.D.” averaged 6.588 million viewers following “Chicago Fire,” 11th for the week and first among programs beginning at 10 p.m.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 30-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints in an NFL divisional round playoff game Sunday drew the largest audience for a prime-time program during the 17-week-old 2020-21 season, averaging 35.643 million viewers, enabling Fox to finish first for the week, averaging 9.05 million viewers for its 16 hours of programming.
Fox’s most-watched non-football program was the second episode of the animated comedy “The Great North,” which averaged 6.101 million viewers, 12th for the week, sixth among non-sports programs and fifth among entertainment programs.
“The Great North” followed Fox’s 13-minute NFL postgame show Sunday which averaged 18.01 million viewers, fifth for the week. The premiere of “The Great North” Jan. 3 averaged 2.339 million viewers when it followed the premiere of the comedy “Call Me Kat” which averaged 5.625 million viewers.
NBC was second for the week, averaging 6.35 million viewers. It aired the season’s — and week’s — second most-watched prime-time program, the Buffalo Bills’ 17-3 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, which averaged 26.237 million viewers.
CBS was third for the week, averaging 4.05 million viewers. It carried the most-watched non-sports program, the news magazine “60 Minutes,” which averaged 10.565 million viewers, seventh for the week.
ABC was fourth, averaging 3.47 million viewers.
NBC, CBS and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
ESPN’s coverage of Alabama’s 52-24 victory over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national championship game Jan. 11 was the week’s most-watched cable program, averaging 18.528 million viewers, third for the week.
ESPN was the week’s most-watched cable network, averaging 3.212 million viewers. CNN was second, averaging 3.053 million, a week after finishing first, averaging 4.108 million viewers, thanks in part to the largest single-day audience in its 40-year history for coverage of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, averaging 5.221 million viewers.
MSNBC was third, averaging 2.743 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel, which averaged 2.411 million.
For the fourth time in five weeks, an episode of the Univision telenovela “Vencer el desamor” was the most-watched Spanish-language prime- time program, with the Tuesday episode averaging 2.053 million viewers, 70th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 59th consecutive week and 61st time in 62 weeks, averaging 1.26 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1 million viewers followed by UniMas (340,000), Estrella TV (180,000) and Azteca America (60,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 59th consecutive week, the 110th time in 111 weeks and the 162nd time in 164 weeks, averaging 10.336 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 8.469 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 6.194 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were Fox’s coverage of Sunday’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers-New Orleans Saints divisional round playoff game; NBC’s coverage of Saturday’s Buffalo Bills-Baltimore Ravens divisional round playoff game; ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff national championship game and the 16-minute studio show preceding it; NBC’s 10-minute pre-kickoff show preceding the Buffalo-Baltimore game; Fox’s 13-minute postgame show following the Tampa Bay-New Orleans game; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; ABC’s “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune”; and NBC’s “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire.”
