‘NCIS' Tops TV Ratings For Third Consecutive Week

HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - CBS had each of last week's five most-watched prime-time programs and eight of the top 10 to finish first in the network race for the 16th time in 17 weeks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released today by Nielsen.

“NCIS'' was the only prime-time program between May 10 and Sunday to average more than 8 million viewers, averaging 8.94 million to finish first for the third consecutive week and seventh time in the 34-week-old 2020-21 television season. “NCIS'' is the only scripted series to win a week this season.

CBS had five of the other seven programs to average more than 7 million viewers -- “60 Minutes'' (7.987 million); “FBI'' (7.692 million) “The Equalizer'' (7.386 million); “Young Sheldon'' (7.211 million); and the 10 p.m. Friday edition of “Blue Bloods'' (7.07 million).

The only non-CBS programs to average more than 7 million viewers were NBC's “Chicago Fire,'' sixth for the week averaging 7.078 million, and “Chicago Med,'' which was eighth for the week, averaging 7.06 million.

CBS averaged 4.96 million viewers for its 22 hours of prime-time programming for the week for its 18th first-place finish of the season. The order behind CBS was the same as the previous week, with NBC finishing second, averaging 3.73 million, and ABC third, averaging 2.89 million.

NBC and ABC also aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.

Fox was fourth among the broadcast networks for the 16th consecutive week, averaging 2.28 million viewers for its 15 hours of programming. The CW again was fifth among the five major English-language broadcast networks, averaging 500,000 viewers for its 12 hours.

“American Idol'' was ABC's most-watched program for the seventh consecutive week it has aired, averaging 6.106 million viewers, putting it 11th for the week.

Fox's most-watched program was the procedural drama “9-1-1,'' which averaged 5.829 million viewers, putting it 15th for the week. A “9-1-1'' episode has been Fox's most-watched program all 12 weeks it has aired this season.

The martial arts action-adventure series “Kung Fu'' was The CW's most-watched program for the fifth time in the six weeks it has aired, averaging 955,000 viewers, 127th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

An edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight'' was the most-watched prime-time cable program for the second consecutive week, with the Tuesday edition averaging 3.266 million viewers, 38th overall.

Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in prime time for the seventh consecutive week and 15th time in 16 weeks, averaging 2.288 million viewers.

The second- and third-place finishers were the same as the previous week. MSNBC averaged 1.436 million viewers and HGTV averaged 1.194 million.

The top 20 cable programs consisted of 13 Fox News Channel programs -- five broadcasts each of  ”Tucker Carlson Tonight'' and “Hannity'' and three of “The Ingraham Angle''; five broadcasts of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show,'' the Hallmark Channel movie “Sweet Carolina''; and the HGTV renovation series “Home Town Takeover.''

The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Telemundo's broadcast of the Miss Universe pageant, won by Andrea Meza of Mexico, which averaged 2.711 million viewers, 55th overall.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 76th consecutive week and 78th time in 79 weeks, averaging 1.29 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.27 million viewers, followed by UniMas (580,000), Estrella TV (130,000) and Azteca America (40,000).

ABC's “World News Tonight with David Muir'' was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 76th consecutive week, the 127th time in 128 weeks and the 179th time in 181 weeks, averaging 9.03 million viewers.

“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' was second, averaging 7.572 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell,'' which averaged 5.594 million viewers.

The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS' “NCIS,'' “60 Minutes,'' “FBI,'' “The Equalizer'' and “Young Sheldon''; NBC's “Chicago Fire''; the 10 p.m. edition of CBS' “Blue Bloods''; NBC's “Chicago Med''; the 9 p.m. edition of “Blue Bloods''; and the season finale of CBS' “Mom.''

Photo: Getty Images

Copyright 2021, City News Service, Inc.


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content