HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - The Golden Globe Awards averaged its smallest audience since returning to NBC in 1996, but was still fourth among last week's prime-time broadcast and cable programs, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen this week.
Sunday's bi-costal ceremony hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler averaged 6.913 million viewers. The previous low since its return to NBC was in 2009 when it averaged 14.86 million viewers, one year after the ceremony was scrapped because of threats of a boycott by actors in support of the strike by the Writers Guild of America.
The Golden Globe Awards customarily gets a boost by following an NFL game. The 2020 ceremony averaged 18.323 million viewers following a 20-minute postgame show for the Philadelphia Eagles-Seattle Seahawks NFC wild-card playoff game, which averaged 24.657 million viewers.
Despite drawing its smallest audience for an original episode since its season premiere, “60 Minutes'' was the most-watched prime-time program for the second week in a row, averaging 8.127 million viewers.
The CBS News magazine's only smaller audience for an original episode this season was 7.56 million Sept. 28, when it aired opposite a 58-minute runover of Fox's afternoon NFL coverage, mainly the Seattle Seahawks' 38-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys that averaged 24.033 million viewers.
For the sixth time in the six weeks since Fox's final prime-time NFL telecast of the 2020 season, CBS had at least the three most-watched programs.
“Young Sheldon'' was second among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Feb. 22 and Sunday, averaging a season-best 7.874 million viewers. “The Equalizer,'' which followed “60 Minutes,'' was third, averaging 7.781 million viewers.
CBS averaged 4.46 million viewers for the week, its sixth consecutive weekly victory and eighth in the 23-week-old 2020-21 television season, even without airing original episodes of the season's two most-popular entertainment programs to have aired at least five episodes, “NCIS'' and “FBI.''
The order of finish behind CBS was the same as the previous four weeks. ABC was second, averaging 3.87 million viewers, and NBC third, averaging 3.35 million. Fox was fourth, averaging 2.28 million viewers for its 15 hours, 48 minutes of programming.
CBS, ABC and NBC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming for the week.
The procedural drama “9-1-1'' was Fox's most-watched program for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 6.739 million viewers, fifth for the week.
“American Idol'' was ABC's most-watched program, for the third time in the three weeks it has aired this season, averaging 6.605 million viewers, sixth for the week.
For the fourth time in five weeks, an episode of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show'' was the most-watched prime-time cable program, with the Wednesday episode averaging 3.483 million viewers, 38th overall.
The order of finish among the top three cable networks was the same for the fifth consecutive week. Fox News Channel was first, averaging 2.464 million viewers, MSNBC second, averaging 1.904 million and CNN third, averaging 1.283 million.
Fox News Channel had nine of the top 20 prime-time cable programs, MSNBC eight, including a sweep of the top four by “The Rachel Maddow Show,'' while The History Channel, Hallmark Channel and AMC had one each.
The week's most-watched Spanish-language program was the Monday episode of the Univision telenovela “Vencer el desamor'' which averaged 1.858 million viewers, 71st among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 65th consecutive week and 67th time in 68 weeks, averaging 1.35 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 970,000 viewers followed by UniMas (600,000), Estrella TV (130,000) and Azteca America (50,000).
ABC's “World News Tonight with David Muir'' was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 65th consecutive week, the 116th time in 117 weeks and the 168th time in 170 weeks, averaging 9.451 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' was second, averaging 7.626 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell,'' which averaged 5.757 million viewers.
The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS' ”60 Minutes,'' ”Young Sheldon'' and “The Equalizer''; NBC's coverage of the Golden Globe Awards; Fox's “9-1-1''; ABC's “American Idol'' and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune''; CBS' “The Neighborhood''; ABC's “America's Funniest Home Videos''; and CBS' “NCIS: Los Angeles.''
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