Trump town hall 5th in time slot; Lakers top week’s TV ratings

By Steven Herbert

CNN’s town hall with former President Donald Trump topped its cable news rivals in its time slot, but trailed TNT’s coverage of Game 5 of the Miami Heat-New York Knicks Eastern Conference semifinal series and three broadcast programs.

The town hall from 8-9:10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time last Wednesday averaged 3.308 million viewers, 11th among prime-time cable programs airing between May 8 and Sunday, behind six NBA playoff games on TNT and four on ESPN, and 47th overall, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

Fox News Channel averaged 1.446 million viewers in the town hall time period with “Fox News Tonight” hosted by former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the first 10 minutes of “Hannity,” and MSNBC averaged 1.398 million with “All In with Chris Hayes” and the first 10 minutes of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”

New York’s 112-103 victory over Miami averaged 4.388 million viewers from 7:30-10:08 p.m. EDT, 10th for the week among prime-time cable programs and 39th overall. Its viewership from 8-9:10 p.m. was not available.

ABC’s “Jeopardy! Masters” and the NBC medical drama “Chicago Med” tied for first in last Wednesday’s 8-9 p.m. time slot, both averaging 5.452 million viewers, 17th for the week, while CBS’ “Survivor” averaged 4.778 million viewers, 28th for the week.

Digital viewing added 100,000 viewers to the audience, giving it a total viewership of 3.408 million, according to CNN.

“Anderson Cooper 360,” which followed the town hall, averaged 2.152 million viewers, third among the week’s prime-time cable news programs, behind the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which averaged 2.289 million viewers, 14th among all prime-time cable programs and 60th overall.

The town hall and “Anderson Cooper 360” were the only CNN programs among the week’s top 20 prime-time cable programs and top 40 covering all dayparts. By comparison, Fox News Channel had four programs among the top 20 and 16 among the top 40 and MSNBC one among the top 20 and two among the top 40.

The town hall was unable to lift CNN out of its customary third-place status among cable news channels for either the day or week. It averaged 731,000 viewers throughout the day last Wednesday, compared to 1.319 million for Fox News Channel and 927,000 for MSNBC.

CNN averaged 689,000 viewers in prime time last week, sixth among cable channels. Its viewership was up 39.5% from its 494,000 average the previous week when it was 13th.

Fox News Channel was first in prime time among cable news networks for the 117th consecutive week and third among cable networks for the third consecutive week, averaging 1.425 million viewers, 2.9% less than its 1.468 million average the previous week.

MSNBC was fourth among cable networks for the fourth consecutive week following third- and second-place finishes, averaging 1.127 million viewers, 2.4% less than its 1.155-million average the previous week.

Viewership for the Trump event was the second largest for a CNN single-candidate town hall since 2016, only trailing a Sept. 17, 2020 town hall with President Biden which averaged 3.465 million viewers.

NBA playoff coverage made TNT the most-watched cable network for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 2.925 million viewers. ESPN was second for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.822 million.

ESPN’s coverage of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-101 series-clinching victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday in a Western Conference semifinal series was the most-watched prime-time program, averaging 8.64 million viewers, the most for a conference semifinal game since 2011.

TNT’s coverage of Games 5 and 4 of the Lakers-Warriors series also drew more viewers than any prime-time broadcast program. Golden State’s 121-106 victory in Game 5 last Wednesday averaged 7.547 million viewers and the Lakers‘ 104-101 victory in Game 4 on May 8 averaged 7.523 million viewers.

The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of 10 NBA playoff games — six on TNT and four on ESPN; CNN’s town hall with Trump and the “Anderson Cooper 360” that followed it; History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; “The Rachel Maddow Show”; ESPN’s coverage of Game 6 of the second-round NHL playoff series between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken; four editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Hannity”; and History’s UFO investigation series, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”

CBS had each of the five most-watched broadcast programs to be the most-watched network for the ninth consecutive week, the 12th time in 13 weeks and 14th time in the last 16, averaging 4.6 million viewers.

“60 Minutes” was the most-watched broadcast program, averaging 6.695 million viewers, fourth overall.

The only times CBS has not finished first in the past 16 weeks were the weeks of Feb. 6-13, when Fox aired Super Bowl LVII, and March 6-12, when ABC aired the Oscars.

ABC was second for the fifth consecutive week following four consecutive third-place finishes, averaging 3.46 million viewers. Its most-watched program was “American Idol,” ninth for the week and sixth among nonsports programs, averaging 6.325 million viewers.

NBC was third among the broadcast networks for the fifth consecutive week after four consecutive second-place finishes, averaging 2.95 million viewers. “Chicago Fire” was its most-watched program for the second consecutive week, averaging 5.946 million viewers, 12th overall and eighth among nonsports programs.

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

Fox averaged 2.02 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming. The procedural drama “9-1-1” was its most-watched program, averaging 4.477 million viewers, 34th for the week and 27th among nonsports programming.

Each of the eight original episodes of “9-1-1” to air in 2023 have been Fox’s most-watched prime-time program of the week.

The CW averaged 310,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. The superhero drama “Superman & Lois” was its most-watched program for the seventh time in the eight weeks it has aired this season, averaging 552,000 viewers, tying for 156th among broadcast programs with the episodes of the 1960-68 CBS comedy, “The Andy Griffith Show” that aired at 8:30 p.m. May 9 and last Wednesday on MeTV.

Its overall ranking was not available.

The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of five NBA playoff games — three on ESPN and two on TNT; seven CBS scripted programs and its news magazine “60 Minutes”; three episodes of “Jeopardy! Masters” and “American Idol” on ABC; two NBC scripted series and its singing competition “The Voice.”

The “Bridgerton” prequel “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” was Netflix’s most-watched title for the second consecutive week with 158.68 million hours watched of its six episodes in their first full week of release. Viewership was up 7% from the 148.28 million hours watched the previous week when the episodes were available for four days.

Netflix’s most-watched movie was the Jennifer Lopez-starring action thriller “The Mother” with 83.71 million hours watched in its first three days of release.

The most-watched Spanish-language program was the Thursday episode of the Univision telenovela “Cabo,” which averaged 1.638 million viewers, 65th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 40th consecutive week and 178th time in 180 weeks, averaging 1.16 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 820,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (330,000) and Estrella TV (100,000).

ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast, averaging 7.313 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 5.885 million viewers. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.38 million viewers.

The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were ESPN’s coverage of Game 6 of the Lakers-Warriors series; TNT’s coverage of Games 5 and 4; CBS’ “60 Minutes,” “Young Sheldon,” “NCIS,” “Ghosts,” and “FBI”; ABC’s “American Idol”; and ESPN’s coverage of Game 6 of the Boston Celtics-Philadelphia 76ers Eastern Conference semifinal series.

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