The second Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign was the most-watched non-sports program in the first week of the 2023-24 prime-time television season, while the Tuesday edition of the NBC singing contest, “The Voice” was the most-watched entertainment program.
The two-hour debate last Wednesday from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley averaged a combined 9.323 million viewers on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and Univision, seventh among prime-time programs airing between Sept. 25 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets was the week’s most-watched program, averaging 24.832 million viewers, while two NFL pregame shows; two postgame shows and ABC’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers also topped the debate.
The Tuesday edition of “The Voice” averaged 6.539 million viewers, 12th for the week, one spot ahead of its Sept. 25 season premiere, which averaged 6.26 million.
In a week when the Writers Guild of America strike left little first-run scripted programming available, the most-watched scripted program was the 8 p.m. Sunday episode of “Yellowstone.” The episode of the neo-Western that originally aired on Paramount Network in 2018 averaged 4.433 million viewers on CBS following “60 Minutes,” 19th for the week and ninth among non-sports programs.
An episode of “Yellowstone” has been the most-watched scripted series each of the three weeks it has aired on CBS.
The ABC dating series “The Golden Bachelor” was the most-watched of the week’s three premieres on the five major English-language broadcast networks, averaging 4.361 million viewers, first in its Thursday 8-10 p.m. time slot, 20th for the week and 10th among non-sports programs.
The NBC crime drama “The Irrational” was second among the premieres, averaging 3.833 million viewers Sept. 25 following the season premiere of “The Voice.” It was the week’s most-watched show beginning at 10 p.m., 24th for the week and 14th among non-sports programs.
The week’s other premiere, “Snake Oil,” averaged 1.79 million viewers, 53rd among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available. The Fox game show retained 55.6% of the audience from “The Masked Singer” which preceded it.
“The Masked Singer” averaged 3.219 million viewers, 32nd for the week and 20th among non-sports programs.
The combination of “Sunday Night Football,” “The Voice” and the season’s final three editions of “America’s Got Talent” made NBC the most-watched network for the fourth consecutive week, coinciding with the start of the NFL season, averaging 6.79 million viewers.
The Chiefs’ 23-20 victory was the officially the season’s most-watched NFL game, topping the previous high of 24.65 million for Kansas City’s 21-20 upset loss to the Detroit Lions in the NFL Kickoff game Sept. 7 which averaged 24.752 million viewers.
The total audience delivery of 26.7 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports digital and NFL digital platforms was second for the season behind the 27.5 million for the NFL Kickoff game.
With pop star Taylor Swift watching from a suite, viewership for the game was up 53% among girls ages 12-17, up 24% among women ages 18-24 and 34% among women 35 and over, according to Nielsen fast national figures, which do not include out-of-home viewing, unlike the final national figures.
The collective growth resulted in an approximate viewership increase of more than 2 million female viewers, according to NBC.
“Sunday Night Football,” three of its pregame shows, the two episodes of “The Voice” and the three editions of “America’s Got Talent,” accounted for nine of the week’s 21 most-watched programs.
ABC was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 4.57 million viewers. The Eagles 25-11 victory over the Buccaneers on “Monday Night Football” was ABC’s most-watched program, averaging 13.72 million viewers, fourth for the week behind “Sunday Night Football,” the 10-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show and Fox’s six-minute postgame show immediately following its Sunday NFL coverage.
The season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars” was ABC’s most-watched non-sports program, averaging 4.778 million viewers, 18th for the week and eighth among non-sports programs.
CBS was third for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.88 million viewers. “60 Minutes” was its most-watched program, averaging 6.886 million viewers, 10th overall and second among non-sports programs.
NBC, ABC and CBS each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 2.54 million viewers for its 15 hours, 41 minutes of prime-time programming, which included a 21-minute runover of its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage into prime time which averaged 22.318 million viewers.
The runover is not considered a separate program, but is included in the weekly average.
The 35th season premiere of “The Simpsons” was Fox’s most-watched non-sports program, averaging 3.584 million viewers, 26th for the week and 16th among non-sports programs.
The CW averaged 340,000 viewers for its 15 hours of programming. The Miss USA pageant was its most-watched program, averaging 811,000 viewers to finish 122nd among broadcast programs, one spot ahead of the episode of the rerun of the 1960-68 CBS comedy “The Andy Griffith Show” which aired at 8:30 p.m. last Wednesday on MeTV and averaged 810,000 viewers. The overall ranks for both programs were not available.
The week’s 20 most-watched broadcast and cable prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games, four NFL pregame shows, two NFL postgame shows; the Republican presidential debate; “60 Minutes”; both editions of “The Voice”; two editions of “America’s Got Talent”; ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” game between Notre Dame and Duke; CBS’ “Survivor”; ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”; the 8 p.m. episode of “Yellowstone”; and “The Golden Bachelor.”
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the second consecutive week and 12th time in 14 weeks, averaging 2.122 million viewers. It was first among cable news networks for the 16th consecutive week and 136th time in 137 weeks.
ESPN was second for the second consecutive week following back-to-back first-place finishes, averaging 2.046 million.
MSNBC was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.474 million viewers.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of the Republican presidential debate and its 30-minute countdown show; ESPN’s Sept. 25 “Monday Night Football” game between the Rams and Cincinnati Bengals and its 12-minute kickoff show; two college football games on ESPN; nine Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — four broadcasts of “Jesse Watters Primetime,” three of “Hannity” and two of “Gutfeld!”; four MSNBC political talk shows — three broadcasts of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” and the Sept. 25 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show”; and the Hallmark Channel period drama “When Calls The Heart.”
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and its 10-minute kickoff show; Fox’s six-minute NFL postgame show
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