Enough viewers stayed tuned to NBC last Tuesday after “America’s Got Talent” to make the latest incarnation of “Password” the most-watched of the summer’s nine premieres on the five major broadcast networks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The word-guessing game hosted by actress Keke Palmer with actor Jon Hamm and talk show host Jimmy Fallon as the initial celebrity players averaged 4.211 million viewers, eighth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Aug. 8 and Sunday and first among programs beginning at 10 p.m.
“Password” retained 65.2% of “America’s Got Talent’s” audience. The two-hour “AGT” episode averaged 6.452 million viewers, finishing first for the third consecutive week and fifth time in seven weeks.
The summer’s previous high for a premiere was the ABC game show “Generation Gap,” which averaged 3.864 million viewers July 7.
A second episode of “Password” that aired Wednesday was fourth for the week, averaging 4.576 million viewers for games with Fallon and model- turned-television host and businesswoman Heidi Klum as the celebrity players following the first Wednesday “America’s Got Talent” episode of the summer, retaining 83.2% of its audience. The 61-minute”America’s Got Talent” episode was third for the week, averaging 5.499 million viewers.
The CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” was the other prime-time program to average more than 5 million viewers, averaging 5.945 million viewers for an edition with three previously broadcast segments that were updated.
“America’s Got Talent” and “60 Minutes” have finished 1-2 in the ratings for three consecutive weeks and four of the past five.
Major League Baseball’s “Field of Dreams” game was the most-watched prime-time sporting event and Fox’s most-watched program, averaging 3.103 million viewers, 24th for the week.
Viewership for the Chicago Cubs’ 4-2 victory of the Cincinnati Reds was 47% less than the 5.851 million average for the inaugural game one year ago near where the 1989 movie was filmed in Dyersville, Iowa, a 9-8 victory by the Chicago White Sox over the New York Yankees.
NBC was the most-watched network for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.72 million viewers, followed by CBS, which averaged 2.68 million.
ABC was third among the broadcast networks, averaging 2.45 million viewers.
“Celebrity Family Feud” was ABC’s most-watched program for the seventh time in the seventh weeks since the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final. Sunday’s games matching teams led by actresses Kristin Chenoweth and Kathy Najimy and a matchup of the casts of the alternative series “My Unorthodox Life” and “Summer House” averaged 4.51 million viewers, fifth for the week.
NBC, CBS and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.81 million viewers for its 16 hours, 38 minutes of prime-time programming.
The CW averaged 310,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program was the 8:30 p.m. Sunday rerun of “World’s Funniest Animals,” which averaged 487,000 viewers, 185th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.
The CW aired the week’s other premiere, the Australian teen comedy-drama “Bump,” which averaged 364,000 viewers, tying for 206th among broadcast programs.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of two episodes each of “America’s Got Talent” and “Password”; “60 Minutes”; the ABC game shows “Celebrity Family Feud,” “The $100,000 Pyramid” and “Press Your Luck”; a rerun of the ABC alternative series “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; three episodes of the CBS alternative series “Big Brother”; a rerun of CBS’ “FBI”; six Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — three broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” two of “Hannity” and one of “The Ingraham Angle”; and the Aug. 8 edition of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
Fox News Channel’s weeknight political talk shows airing Aug. 8 with breaking news coverage of the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s home were the week’s three most-watched prime-time programs, topped by “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which averaged 4.264 million viewers, sixth overall. The broadcast was guest-hosted by “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Will Cain.
Fox News Channel had 14 of the week’s 15 most-watched prime-time cable programs to be the most-watched cable network in prime time for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 2.664 million viewers, 28.2% more than its 2.078 million average the previous week.
MSNBC was second, averaging 1.503 million, 58.2% more than its 950,000 average the previous week. HGTV was third, averaging 972,000. CNN was fourth, four spots higher than the previous week, averaging 885,000 viewers, a 35.1% increase over its 655,000 average the previous week.
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” — and its Sunday political talk show, “Life, Liberty & Levin”; three MSNBC news and opinion programs — two broadcasts of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” and the Aug. 8 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show”; and the NFL Network’s coverage of Saturday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Seattle Seahawks preseason game.
The most-watched Spanish-language program for the second consecutive week was Telemundo’s adaptation of “Celebrity Big Brother,” “La Casa de Los Famosos,” whose three-hour season finale Aug. 8 averaged 1.661 million viewers, 56th among broadcast programs.
Univision returned to the top of the ratings among Spanish-language networks after a two-week absence, averaging 1 million viewers for its 139th first-place finish in 141 weeks. Telemundo was second after back-to-back first- place finishes, averaging 960,000. UniMas was third, averaging 420,000, followed by Estrella TV (120,000) and Azteca America (40,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 140th time in 141 weeks and 192nd time in 194 weeks, averaging 7.533 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.013 million.
The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.35 million.
“The Sandman” was Netflix’s most-watched program, with viewers spending 127.5 million hours watching the 10 episodes of the fantasy drama in their first full week of release, according to figures released by the streaming service. Viewership was up 83.5% from the 69.48 million hours watched the previous week, when it was available for three days and was second for the week behind the film romance “Purple Hearts.”
Netflix’s most-watched film was “Day Shift,” with viewers watching the vampire action comedy for 56.15 million hours in its first three days of release. “Purple Hearts” was Netflix’s second most-watched movie, with 46.37 million hours watched, 54.8% less than the 102.59 million hours the previous week, in its first full week of release.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were the Tuesday edition of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the Wednesday episodes of “America’s Got Talent” and NBC’s “Password”; ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud”; the Aug. 8 editions of the Fox News Channel political talk shows, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity”; the Tuesday “Password” episode; ABC’s “The $100,000 Pyramid”; and the Sunday edition of CBS’ “Big Brother.”
