College football games accounted for three of last week’s four most-watched prime-time programs, topped by ABC’s coverage of Saturday’s Clemson-Georgia game, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Wednesday by Nielsen.
An average of 8.863 million viewers watched Georgia’s 10-3 victory, the second-most for a Kickoff Saturday game in the past 20 years, trailing only the 2017 Alabama-Florida State game which averaged 12.335 million viewers.
ABC’s coverage of Notre Dame’s 41-38 overtime victory over Florida State Sunday was second among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Aug. 30 and Sunday, averaging 7.751 million viewers.
The audience was the second-largest for an Opening Week Sunday game on record, trailing only the 2016 Notre Dame-Texas game, which averaged 10.945 million viewers, also on ABC.
Ohio State’s 45-31 victory over Minnesota Thursday drew the largest audience for an opening week college football telecast on Fox, averaging 6.295 million viewers, fourth for the week.
The week’s only entertainment programs to average more than 6 million viewers were the two “America’s Got Talent” episodes on NBC. The two-hour Tuesday episode was third for the week, averaging 7.192 million, and the hourlong Wednesday episode was fifth, averaging 6.102 million.
The two college football games made ABC the most-watched network for the fifth time in the 14 full weeks of television’s summer season and seventh time in the 50 weeks of the 2020-21 television season, averaging 4.39 million viewers.
ABC’s most-watched program outside its college football programming was Thursday’s three-hour country music special, “CMA Summer Jam,” 14th for the week averaging 3.679 million viewers.
Cable’s Fox News Channel was second overall for the second consecutive week following its first place finish the week of Aug. 16-22, averaging 2.585 million viewers. CBS was third overall, averaging 2.58 million, followed by NBC, which averaged 2.53 million, and Fox, which averaged 2.49 million viewers for its 17 hours, 49 minutes of prime-time programming.
ABC, Fox News Channel, CBS and NBC each broadcast 22 hours of prime-time programming.
CBS’ most-watched program was an edition of “60 Minutes” with three previously broadcast segments that were updated for the broadcast, sixth for the week, averaging 5.908 million viewers.
Fox also benefited from its coverage of UCLA’s 38-27 victory over LSU, which was second among Saturday’s prime-time programs and 33rd for the week, averaging 3.219 million viewers.
Fox’s most-watched non-college football program was “Hell’s Kitchen,” 38th for the week, averaging 2.609 million viewers.
The Canadian crime drama “Coroner” was The CW’s most-watched program for the third consecutive week, averaging 711,000 viewers, tying for 157th among broadcast programs with an episode of the 1964-69 CBS comedy “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” on MeTV. Its overall rank was not available.
The CW again was fifth among the five major English-language broadcast networks, averaging 440,000 viewers for its 12 hours of programming.
Fox News Channel finished first in primetime among cable networks for the ninth consecutive week, averaging 2.585 million viewers, more than the combined total of its cable news rivals, MSNBC, which was second for the week, averaging 1.218 million viewers and CNN, seventh for the week averaging 861,000.
ESPN was third among cable networks, averaging 1.217, followed by HGTV (1.054 million), TLC (961,000) and Hallmark Channel (862,000).
Fox News Channel had each of the 12 most-watched prime-time cable programs, topped by the Monday edition of the political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which averaged 4.312 million viewers, seventh overall.
The most-watched prime-time Spanish language program was the Friday episode of the Univision telenovela “La Desalmada” which averaged 2.008 million viewers, tying for 39th among broadcast programs with CBS’ “The Greatest #ATHOME Videos.” Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 92nd consecutive week and 94th time in 95 weeks, averaging 1.45 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.02 million viewers, followed by UniMas (510,000), Estrella TV (110,000) and Azteca America (40,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 92nd consecutive week, the 143rd time in 144 weeks and the 195th time in 197 weeks, averaging 8.196 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.91 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 4.987 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were ABC’s coverage of the Clemson-Georgia and Florida State-Notre Dame college football games; the Tuesday edition of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; Fox’s coverage of the Ohio State-Minnesota college football game; the Wednesday edition of “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the Monday edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight”; the Thursday and Wednesday episodes of CBS’ “Big Brother”; and a rerun of CBS’ “NCIS.”
