Merrick Hanna of Encinitas in “Judge Cuts” episode of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Image via YouTube.com
Two versions of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” took the top spots in the most recent ratings race.
The two-hour “America’s Got Talent” live competition show drew the largest audience for an entertainment program since April 4 while the season’s first results show was last week’s second most-watched prime- time television program, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
The first live competition show of the season last Tuesday averaged 13.444 million viewers, the most for a prime-time entertainment program since the April 4 episode of the CBS military drama “NCIS” averaged 13.832.
The audience was the largest for the first live competition show of the season since 2011 when it averaged 14.1 million viewers.
The hourlong results show averaged 10.891 million viewers, the most for an “America’s Got Talent” Wednesday results show, outside of finales, since Sept. 7, 2011.
Following back-to-back record audiences and five consecutive weekly second-place finishes, “Game of Thrones” finished third among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Aug. 14 and Sunday, averaging 10.236 million viewers.
The audience was the second largest in the HBO fantasy drama’s seven seasons, only trailing the 10.718 million average a week earlier. Each of the season’s six episodes is among the six most-watched during the series run.
The two “America’s Got Talent” episodes and “Game of Thrones” were the week’s only programs to average more than 8 million viewers.
“Game of Thrones” was the week’s most-watched program among viewers ages 18-49, averaging 6.043 million viewers among the group targeted by ABC, Fox, NBC and many cable networks and coveted by advertisers.
The Tuesday and Wednesday “America’s Got Talent” episodes were second and third among the group, averaging a season-high 3.647 million viewers and 2.755 million, followed by the Thursday, Wednesday and Sunday episodes of CBS’ “Big Brother,” which averaged 2.654 million, 2.46 million and 2.368 million.
The week’s only premiere, the NBC comedy “Marlon” was second in its Wednesday 9-9:30 p.m. time slot and 13th for the week, averaging 5.2 million viewers, the most among the nine premieres of new or returning scripted series on the four major broadcast networks this summer.
“Marlon” retained 46.1 percent of the 11.283 million-viewer audience for final half-hour of the “America’s Got Talent” results show that preceded it.
A second episode of “Marlon” airing from 9:30-10 p.m. Wednesday was also second in its time slot, averaging 4.003 million viewers, 26th for the week.
Both episodes were also second in their time slots among viewers ages 18- 49, averaging 1.587 million and 1.246 million, finishing 11th and 22nd for the week.
NBC was the most-watched network for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 5.05 million viewers.
CBS finished second for the eighth time in nine weeks, averaging 4.24 million viewers, with four of the week’s seven most-watched programs.
The news magazine “60 Minutes” was fourth for the week, averaging 7.7.96 million viewers, and the Thursday, Sunday and Wednesday editions of “Big Brother,” which were fifth, sixth and seventh for the week, averaging 6.478 million, 6.325 million and 6.277 million.
ABC was third for the ninth consecutive week, averaging 3.69 million viewers. Its most-watched program was “CMA Fest 2017,” 10th for the week, averaging 5.74 million viewers.
Fox was fourth among the broadcast networks for the 28th consecutive week since airing Super Bowl LI, averaging 1.72 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox’s most-watched program was “MasterChef,” 45th for the week, averaging 3.102 million viewers. “MasterChef” was 24th among viewers ages 18- 49, averaging 1.22 million viewers.
NBC aired 21 hours, 41 minutes of prime-time programming for ratings purposes for the week, CBS and ABC 22 hours each.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in prime time for the 13th consecutive week, 18th time in 21 weeks and 27th in the past 31, averaging 2.014 million viewers.
MSNBC was second for the ninth time in 11 weeks, averaging 1.922 million viewers. USA Network finished third for the second consecutive week, averaging 1.514 million.
CNN was fifth, two spots higher than each of the previous two weeks, averaging 1.284 million viewers.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was the Tuesday episode of the Telemundo telenovela “El Senor de los Cielos” which averaged 2.026 million viewers to finish 101st overall. The telenovela’s Monday episode was 23rd among viewers ages 18-49, averaging 1.224 million viewers.
Telemundo ended Univision’s 38-week streak as the most-watched Spanish- language network, averaging 1.47 million viewers.
Univision was second, averaging 1.39 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 460,000 viewers, Estrella TV, which averaged 210,000 and Azteca America, which averaged 80,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly network newscast for the 11th consecutive week, averaging 7.887 million viewers. The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.484 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” was third, averaging 5.875 million viewers in Anthony Mason’s eighth week as interim anchor. The “CBS Evening News” has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25-29, 2006.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were the Tuesday and Wednesday episodes of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; HBO’s “Game of Thrones”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the Thursday, Sunday and Wednesday editions of CBS’ “Big Brother”; NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior”; CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory”; and ABC’s “CMA Fest 2017.”
—City News Service
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