Men's Soccer Game Draws Week's Largest Prime-Time Audience

HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - The combined Spanish and English viewership of the U.S.-Mexico CONCACAF Gold Cup final was larger than any prime-time program during the week of Independence Day, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen today.

Univision's Spanish-language coverage of Mexico's 1-0 victory Sunday averaged 5.656 million viewers, fifth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between July 1 and Sunday. The English-language coverage on cable's FS1 averaged 2.88 million viewers for a combined audience of 8.536 million.

The audience on FS1 was third among the week's prime-time cable programs behind the July 1 episodes of ``Tucker Carlson Tonight'' and ``Hannity'' on Fox News Channel.

Fox's coverage of the United States' 2-0 victory over Netherlands in Sunday's FIFA Women's World Cup final that aired in late morning and early afternoon in most of the nation averaged 13.982 million viewers, with an average of another 289,000 watching the streaming broadcast.

Telemundo's Spanish-language coverage averaged a total of 1.6 million viewers from traditional television and streaming.

In a week with little first-run programming because of Independence Day, reruns of NBC's ``America's Got Talent'' and the CBS news magazine ``60 Minutes'' were the only prime-time programs to average more than 6 million viewers.

``America's Got Talent'' was first for the week, averaging 6.822 million viewers, with ``60 Minutes'' second, averaging 6.801 million.

NBC also got a boost from ``Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular,'' which was third for the week, averaging 5.865 million viewers, to be the most-watched network for the second consecutive week, averaging 3.54 million viewers. It tied with CBS for first the week of June 17-23.

CBS was second, averaging 3.37 million viewers. ABC was third, averaging 2.82 million. Its most-watched program was ``The Bachelorette,'' fourth for the week, averaging 5.766 million.

Fox was fourth for the 24th time in 25 weeks, averaging 1.57 million viewers for its 15 hours, 36 minutes of prime-time programming. Its most- watched program was ``Saturday Night Baseball,'' 57th among the week's prime- time broadcast and cable programs, averaging 2.406 million viewers.

CBS, NBC and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming for ratings purposes.

Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in prime time for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 2.011 million viewers, more than the combined total of its cable news rivals, MSNBC, which averaged 1.164 million viewers, second among cable networks, and CNN, which averaged 692,000 to finish 16th.

HGTV was third among cable networks, averaging 1.135 million.

Fox News Channel had five of the week's six most-watched prime-time cable programs, topped by the July 1 episode of ``Tucker Carlson Tonight,'' which averaged 3.2 million viewers, 28th overall.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the third consecutive week after two consecutive second-place finishes, averaging 1.52 million viewers. Telemundo finished second for the third consecutive week after two consecutive victories, averaging 1 million.

UniMas was third, averaging 430,000, followed by Estrella TV, which averaged 160,000 viewers, and Azteca America, which averaged 50,000.

ABC's ``World News Tonight with David Muir'' was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 32nd consecutive week and 83rd time in the past 84 weeks, averaging 7.791 million viewers.

The ``NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' was second, averaging 6.84 million viewers. The ``CBS Evening News'' averaged 5.063 million viewers. It has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25-29, 2006.

Figures for all three network newscasts do not include July 4 or July 5.

The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC's ``America's Got Talent''; CBS' ``60 Minutes''; NBC's ``Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular''; ABC's ``The Bachelorette''; Univision's coverage of the U.S.- Mexico CONCACAF Gold Cup final; ABC's ``Celebrity Family Feud'' and ``$100,000 Pyramid''; NBC's ``American Ninja Warrior'' and the July 2 and Sunday editions of CBS' ``Big Brother.''


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