‘Yellowstone’ again tops TV’s entertainment shows; NBC wins week

By STEVEN HERBERT

“Yellowstone” was the most watched entertainment program for the second time in the two episodes of its fifth season, and one of two to average more than 7 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

The Kevin Costner-starring neo-Western averaged a combined 8.832 million viewers on Paramount Network and CMT, sixth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs between Nov. 14 and Sunday. The CBS crime drama “FBI” was second among entertainment programs and seventh overall, averaging 7.313 million viewers.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the most-watched program for the 10th time in its 11 games, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 30-27 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers averaging 17.886 million viewers, sixth among the season’s “Sunday Night Football” games.

The only time “Sunday Night Football” did not lead the ratings this week was the week of Nov. 7-13, when it drew its second-smallest audience of the season, 15.843 million viewers, for the San Francisco 49ers’ 22-16 victory over the Chargers to finish second behind Fox’s seven-minute NFL postgame show that averaged 18.132 million viewers.

The CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” was the most-watched non-sports program for the eighth time in the nine-week-old 2022-23 prime-time television season, averaging 9.95 million viewers, fourth for the week behind “Sunday Night Football,” ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and the 10-minute”Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show.

The audience was “60 Minutes’ ” third-largest of the season. It followed a 48-minute runover of the network’s afternoon NFL coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones that averaged 24.09 million viewers. The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in the network’s weekly average.

The only time this season “60 Minutes” was not the most-watched non- sports program was the week of Nov. 7-13, when the season premiere of “Yellowstone” averaged 12.493 million viewers on seven Paramount Global cable networks.

With CBS airing a rerun of “Young Sheldon,” “The Neighborhood” was the most-watched comedy for the second time this season, averaging 5.238 million viewers, 19th for the week and 14th among nonsports programs.

The CBS drama “Fire Country” was the most-watched new series for the fourth time in its six episodes, averaging 5.469 million viewers, 16th for the week, 12th among nonsports programs.

The CBS police drama “Blue Bloods” was the most-watched program beginning at 10 p.m. for the sixth time in its six episodes this season, averaging 5.818 million viewers, 13th for the week and ninth among nonsports programs.

The combination of “Sunday Night Football” and its three “Chicago” series made NBC the most-watched network for the seventh time in the season, averaging 5.53 million viewers. The only weeks NBC did not win this season came when Fox aired coverage of the World Series.

NBC’s most-watched non-NFL program was “Chicago Fire,” which averaged 6.898 million viewers, eighth for the week and fourth among nonsports programs. “Chicago Med,” which preceded “Chicago Fire,” was ninth and fifth among non-sports programs, averaging 6.727 million viewers.

“Chicago P.D.” which followed “Chicago Fire,” was 18th for the week, 13th among non-sports programs and second among programs beginning at 10 p.m., averaging 5.386 million viewers.

CBS was second, averaging 5.32 million viewers. ABC was third among broadcast networks and fourth overall behind ESPN, averaging 2.82 million.

ABC’s most-watched program was “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” 34th among the week’s broadcast and cable programs and 28th among nonsports programs, averaging 4.467 million viewers.

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

Fox averaged 2.49 million viewers for its 16 hours of prime-time programming. The procedural drama “9-1-1” was Fox’s most-watched nonsports program for the seventh time in its eight episodes of the season, averaging 4.939 million viewers, 25th for the week and 20th among non-sports programs.

The CW averaged 500,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. The crime drama “Walker” was its most-watched program for the fourth time in seven weeks, averaging 795,000 viewers, 128th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.

The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of two NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; “60 Minutes”; “Yellowstone”; seven CBS scripted programs; NBC’s three “Chicago” series and both episodes of its singing competition “The Voice”; and last Tuesday’s edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Hannity,” which included coverage of former President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would seek a second term.

“Monday Night Football” and Saturday night college football made ESPN the most-watched cable network for the third time in four weeks, sixth time in eight weeks and ninth time in 12 weeks, averaging 3.4 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second, averaging 2.358 million viewers, and Hallmark Channel third, averaging 1.391 million viewers.

MSNBC was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.272 million.

The week’s most-watched cable program was the Nov. 14 broadcast of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” which averaged 12.771 million viewers. The Washington Commanders’ 32-21 victory, which ended the Philadelphia Eagles’ bid for an undefeated season, was second overall.

The cable top 20 consisted of “Monday Night Football” and its 14- minute kickoff show; “Yellowstone”; ESPN’s coverage of Saturday’s South Carolina-Tennessee college football game; 12 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and two “The Ingraham Angle”); the premiere of Paramount+ Sylvester Stallone-starring crime drama “Tulsa King,” which aired on Paramount Network; the MSNBC news and opinion program, “The Rachel Maddow Show”; the Hallmark Channel movie, “My Christmas Dream”; and last Tuesday’s edition of the CNN news/talk program “Anderson Cooper 360,” which included Trump’s announcement.

The fifth season of “The Crown” was Netflix’s most-watched program for the second consecutive week, with viewers watching its 10 episodes for 84.31 million hours the first full week they were available, 21.5% less than the 107.39 million hours the previous week, when they were available for five days, according to figures released by the streaming service.

The romantic comedy “Falling for Christmas” was Netflix’s most- watched movie, with 37.85 million hours watched in its first full week of release, 21.7% less than its 48.36 million hours watched the previous week, when it was available for four days.

Univision’s coverage of the Latin Grammys was the most-watched Spanish-language program, averaging 2.479 million viewers, 67th overall.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 15th consecutive week and 153rd time in 155 weeks, averaging 1.39 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 770,000, followed by UniMas (490,000), Estrella TV (70,000) and Azteca America (50,000).

ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for 154th time in 155 weeks and 206th time in 208 weeks, averaging 8.908 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.259 million.

The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 5.315 million viewers.

The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; the 10-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show; “60 Minutes”; the 20-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America”; “Yellowstone”; CBS’ “FBI”; NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med”; and CBS’ “NCIS.”

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