“60 Minutes” was the most-watched prime-time program for the third consecutive week following the conclusion of NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, averaging 8 million viewers to lead a sweep of CBS programs in the top three, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
“FBI” was second, averaging 7.751 million and “NCIS” third, averaging 7.461 million. The other two prime-time programs between March 7 and Sunday to top 7 million viewers were NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” fourth for the week, averaging 7.137 million viewers, and “Chicago Med,” which precedes it, fifth for week, averaging 7.054 million.
“Chicago P.D.,” which follows “Chicago Fire,” was the most-watched program beginning at 10 p.m. for the third time in the season and first since the week of Oct. 25-31, averaging 6.383 million viewers, ninth for the week.
CBS’ “Young Sheldon” was the most-watched comedy for the 23rd consecutive week, averaging 6.79 million viewers, seventh for the week. The CBS crime drama “FBI: International” was the most-watched first-season program for the third time in four weeks and ninth time in the 25-week-old 2021-22 prime-time television season, averaging 5.958 million viewers, 12th for the week.
“The Thing About Pam” drew the largest audience among the week’s two premieres on the five major broadcast networks, averaging 2.862 million viewers, 54th for the week and seventh among programs beginning at 10 p.m. The NBC true crime miniseries retained 67.5% of the audience of 4.243-million average for “This Is Us,” which preceded it and was 26th for the week.
The premiere of the Fox competition series “Domino Masters” averaged 1.681 million viewers, 70th among the week’s broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available. “Domino Masters” retained 40.5% of the audience of 4.15-million average for the spring season premiere of “The Masked Singer” which preceded it and was 29th for the week.
The order of finish among the major English-language broadcast was unchanged from the previous two weeks.
CBS had five of the week’s seven most-watched programs to be the most- watched network for the ninth time in the season, averaging 4.94 million viewers. ABC was second, averaging 3.47 million viewers, and NBC third, averaging 2.94 million, all for 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 2.07 million viewers for its 16 hours of prime-time programming. The CW averaged 620,000 for its 15 hours of prime-time programming.
“American Idol” was ABC’s most-watched program for the third time in the three weeks it has aired this season, finishing eighth, averaging a season-high 6.636 million viewers. The previous high was 6.573 million viewers, one week earlier.
The procedural drama, “9-1-1: Lone Star” was Fox’s most-watched program for the third consecutive week and fifth time in six weeks, averaging 5.163 million viewers, 17th overall.
The Critics Choice Awards ceremony was The CW’s most-watched program, averaging 1.09 million viewers, 119th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most watched prime-time programs consisted of “60 Minutes” and 13 CBS entertainment programs; the three elements of NBC’s Chicago franchise — “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”; two ABC alternative programs, “American Idol” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; and Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star.”
The Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” drew each of last week’s three largest prime-time cable audiences and five of the top six, topped by the Tuesday episode, which averaged 4.371 million viewers, 24th overall.
Fox News Channel had each of the nine most-watched prime-time cable programs and 13 of the top 14, making it the most-watched cable network for the eighth consecutive week, averaging 2.792 million viewers.
ESPN was second, averaging 1.404 million. MSNBC was third for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 1.187 million. CNN was fourth, averaging 1.123 million viewers after back-to-back second-place finishes.
The cable top 20 consisted of 15 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle”; the Fox News Channel Sunday night political talk show, “Life, Liberty and Levin”; ESPN’s coverage of Virginia Tech’s 82-67 victory over Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game Saturday; TNT’s coverage of the Brooklyn Nets’ 129-100 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Thursday; History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; and the Hallmark Channel period drama “When Calls The Heart.”
The week’s most-watched Spanish-language program was the Tuesday episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi Fortuna Es Amarte,” which averaged 1.909 million viewers, 55th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 119th consecutive week and 121st time in 122 weeks, averaging 1.53 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 990,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (570,000), Estrella TV (100,000) and Azteca America (50,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 118th time in 119 weeks and 170th time in 172 weeks, averaging 8.444 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.284 million.
The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 5.247 million.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ “60 Minutes,” “FBI” and “NCIS”; NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med”; CBS’ “The Equalizer” and `Young Sheldon; ABC’s “American Idol”; NBC’s “Chicago P.D.”; and CBS’ “Blue Bloods.”
