HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - Fox's coverage of the NFC championship game drew its largest audience since 2012, enabling the network to top the combined weekly prime-time viewership of ABC, CBS and NBC, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.
The San Francisco 49ers' 34-31 victory over the Detroit Lions Sunday averaged 56.324 million viewers, the most for an NFC championship game since the New York Giants' 20-17 overtime victory over the 49ers on Jan. 22, 2012 averaged 57.64 million.
Each NFC championship game since 1995 has aired on Fox. Out-of-home viewing has been included in the viewership figures since September 2020.
Fox also had the week's most-watched non-sports program, the season premiere of cooking competition "Next Level Chef," which averaged 7.242 million viewers, fourth for the week behind the three programs that preceded it, the NFC championship game and six- and 14-minute postgame shows, which averaged 42.536 million and 26.484 million.
Fox averaged 12.44 million viewers for its 16 hours, eight minutes of prime-time programming between Jan. 22 and Sunday. NBC was second, averaging 2.99 million, followed by CBS, which averaged 2.73 million, and ABC, which averaged 2.52 million, all for 22 hours of programming.
Fox's most-watched program outside of its Sunday programming was the game show "The Floor," 37th among the week's prime-time broadcast and cable programs, averaging 2.541 million viewers.
NBC's "Chicago" franchise accounted for three of the other four programs to average more than 5 million viewers. "Chicago Med," was fifth for the week, averaging 6.66 million viewers. "Chicago Fire," which followed, was sixth, averaging 6.561 million.
"Chicago P.D." which followed "Chicago Fire," averaged 5.475 million viewers, eighth for the week.
The other program to top 5 million viewers was the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes," which was seventh, averaging 6.546 million viewers. It began 48 minutes after the conclusion of CBS' afternoon coverage of the AFC championship game which averaged 55.473 million viewers, the most for an AFC title game.
The previous record was 54.85 million for the Pittsburgh Steelers' 24- 19 victory over the New York Jets on Jan. 23, 2011. CBS has carried the AFC championship game each year since 1999.
The week's 20 most-watched broadcast and cable prime-time programs consisted of the NFC championship game, its 6- and 14-minute postgame shows and the season premiere of cooking competition "Next Level Chef" which followed on Fox; six NBC scripted programs and its alternative program "America's Got Talent: Fantasy League"; the ABC alternative programs "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and "Shark Tank" its coverage of Saturday's Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors game and news magazine "20/20"; CBS' "60 Minutes," "NCIS: Sydney" and "The Price is Right at Night"; and the Tuesday editions of the Fox News Channel political talk shows "Jesse Watters Primetime" and "Hannity."
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network, averaging 2.12 million viewers. It had each of the 12 most-watched prime-time cable programs and 14 of the top 15, topped by the Jan. 23 edition of "Jesse Watters Primetime," which included coverage of the results of the New Hampshire primary and averaged 3.912 million viewers, 16th among the week's prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
MSNBC was second among cable networks, averaging 1.186 million viewers, and HGTV third, averaging 874,000.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of 14 Fox News Channel political talk shows -- five broadcasts each of "Jesse Watters Primetime" and "Hannity" and four of "Gutfeld!" and its 10 p.m. coverage of the New Hampshire primaries results; History's long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, "The Curse of Oak Island"; two hourlong reports on the New Hampshire primary on MSNBC; the Hallmark Channel movie, "Romance with a Twist"; and the 8 p.m. segment of the USA Network professional wrestling program "Monday Night Raw."
The most-watched Spanish-language program was the Wednesday episode of the Univision telenovela "Mujer," which averaged 1.593 million viewers, 59th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 1.2 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 950,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (370,000) and Estrella TV (90,000).
ABC's "World News Tonight with David Muir" was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 269th time in 270 weeks, averaging 8.386 million viewers. "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" was second, averaging 7.359 million viewers. The "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell" was third, averaging 5.279 million viewers.
The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were Fox's coverage of the NFC championship game, its 6- and 14-minute postgame shows and the season premiere of cooking competition "Next Level Chef"; NBC's "Chicago Med" and "Chicago Fire"; CBS' "60 Minutes"; NBC's "Chicago P.D."; and "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit"; and CBS' "NCIS: Sydney."