Prime-time viewership of MSNBC, Fox News Channel and CNN was up a combined 29.5% in the latest weekly ratings in response to former President Donald Trump’s indictment in connection with his handling of classified records.
MSNBC ended Fox News Channel’s 120-week streak of first-place prime- time finishes among cable news networks, averaging 1.489 million viewers, first among all cable networks between June 5 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same- day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
MSNBC’s viewership was up 53.5% from its 970,000 average the previous week when it was third among cable networks. It had each of the week’s four most-watched prime-time cable programs, topped by the Thursday edition of its political talk show, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” which averaged 2.608 million viewers the night Trump said on social media that he had been indicted.
Fox News Channel was second among cable networks for the second consecutive week, averaging 1.484 million viewers, 10.9% more than its 1.338 million average the previous week.
CNN was seventh among cable networks, seven spots higher than the previous week, averaging 672,000 viewers, a 32.5% increase from its 507,000 average the previous week.
ESPN was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers, averaging 1.023 million.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of six MSNBC political talk shows — three editions of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” the Thursday editions of “Alex Wagner Tonight” and “All In with Chris Hayes” and the June 5 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show”; two MSNBC special reports Friday on Trump’s indictment; five Fox News Channel political talk shows — three broadcasts of “Hannity,” and the Thursday editions of “The Ingraham Angle” and “Fox News Tonight” hosted by Harris Faulkner; Bravo’s look at the lives of restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump and the people in her orbit, “Vanderpump Rules”; ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees and its coverage of Oklahoma’s 3-1 victory over Florida State Thursday to win its third consecutive Women’s College World Series championship; all three hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling show, “WWE Raw”; and History’s UFO investigation series, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”
ABC’s coverage of Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals both drew smaller audiences than the corresponding games in 2022.
The Denver Nuggets’ 109-94 victory over the Miami Heat last Wednesday averaged 11.237 million viewers, first for the week, but 2.5% less than the 11.523-million average for the Boston Celtics’ 116-100 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the 2022 Finals.
Denver’s 108-95 victory over Miami in Friday’s Game 4 averaged 10.416 million viewers, 13.7% less than the 12.063-million average for Golden State’s 107-97 victory in Game 4 of the 2022 Finals.
The 2023 Finals averaged 11.286 million viewers through four games, 3.7% less than the 11.725-million average for the first four games of the 2022 Finals, the lowest when held during its customary time since 2007. Viewership for nearly all forms of programming is down when compared to the past, in part because of the increased viewership options provided by streaming programming.
For the second time in the two full weeks of television’s summer season, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the most-watched non-sports program, averaging 6.14 million viewers, third for the week.
CBS’ coverage of the Tony Awards was second among entertainment programming, third among non-sports programming and sixth overall, averaging 4.121 million viewers. Viewership was down 2.3% from the 4.217-million average for the 2022 ceremony.
The live streaming average audience on Paramount+ was up 13% from last year and the most for a Tony Awards ceremony, according to CBS.
The only premiere on the five major English-language broadcast networks, the Fox alternative series “Stars on Mars,” was fourth among broadcast programs in its 8-9 p.m. time slot June 5 and 63rd for the week, averaging 1.323 million viewers. Its overall rank was not available.
The two NBA Finals games made ABC the most-watched network for the second consecutive week, averaging 4.22 million viewers. Its most-watched non- sports program was a rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” 10th for the week and sixth among non-sports programming, averaging 3.515 million viewers.
CBS averaged 2.98 million viewers to finish second for the second consecutive week after 11 consecutive first-place finishes, 14 in the previous 15 weeks and 16 in the previous 18.
Its most-watched program was a 21-minute edition of “60 Minutes,” which averaged 5.054 million viewers, fourth for the week and second among non- sports programs. The news magazine was joined in progress following a 39-minute runover of CBS’ coverage of the RBC Canadian Open, which wasn’t decided until the fourth playoff hole.
CBS opted to join “60 Minutes” in progress to begin its coverage of the Tony Awards as scheduled at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The edition of “60 Minutes” was to consist of previously broadcast segments on Google’s advancements in artificial intelligence and a profile of Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne that were updated for the postseason edition.
The golf runover averaged 6.42 million viewers. It is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average.
NBC was third among the broadcast networks for the second consecutive week and eighth time in nine weeks, averaging 2.32 million viewers.
CBS, ABC and NBC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.53 million viewers for its 15 hours, 36 minutes of prime-time programming. Its most-watched program was its coverage of the New York Yankees’ 3-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox, which averaged 2.561 million viewers, 25th for the week.
The CW averaged 320,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program for the third consecutive week was the superhero series “Superman & Lois,” which averaged 662,000 viewers, 129th among broadcast programs, one spot below the 1953 John Wayne-starring western “Hondo,” which averaged 665,000 viewers on Grit last Wednesday. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of ABC’s coverage of two NBA Finals games and their two pregame shows; the NBC alternative series “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior”; CBS’ “60 Minutes” and its coverage of the Tony Awards which followed; reruns of the CBS alternative programs “The Price is Right at Night” and “Let’s Make a Deal Primetime”; reruns of four ABC alternative series; reruns of five CBS scripted series; and CBS’ airing of the 2015 action spy film, “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.”
“Manifest” was Netflix’s most-watched title, with viewers watching the 20 episodes of the supernatural drama’s fourth final season, including the 10 episodes released June 2, for 78.15 million hours.
The fourth and final season of the comedy-drama “Never Have I Ever” was second with 76.21 million hours watched of its 10 episodes in the four days they were available.
Netflix’s most-watched movie was the Danish drama “A Beautiful Life” which was watched for 17.42 million hours in its first full week of release, 4.2% more than the 16.71 million hours the previous week when it was available for four days.
An episode of the Univision telenovela “El Amor Invencible” was the most-watched Spanish-language program for the second consecutive week, with the Wednesday episode averaging 1.474 million viewers, 54th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 44th consecutive week and 182nd time in 184 weeks, averaging 1.03 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 600,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (360,000) and Estrella TV (90,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 236th time in 237 weeks, averaging 7.076 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.013 million viewers. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.356 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were ABC’s coverage of Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; a 21-minute edition of CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the 32-minute pregame show preceding Game 3 of the NBA Finals; CBS’ coverage of the Tony Awards; reruns of CBS’ “The Price is Right at Night” and ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud”; the 32-minute pregame show preceding Game 4 of the NBA Finals; and a rerun of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
