‘House of the Dragon’ season finale averages 9.3 million viewers

By STEVEN HERBERT

Sunday’s first-season finale of “House of the Dragon” averaged 9.3 million viewers across all platforms, the most for an HBO finale since the 2019 series finale of “Game of Thrones,” according to what the cable network and its streaming service HBO Max called a “combination of Nielsen and first party data.”

The 9:02 p.m. broadcast of the “Game of Thrones” prequel on HBO averaged 1.846 million viewers, second among the night’s prime-time cable programs behind Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on TBS, which averaged 4.67 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the night and week’s most-watched program, averaging a season-low 15.534 million viewers. The total audience for the Miami Dolphins’ 16-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, which includes streaming viewership on Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL digital platforms, was 16.5 million viewers, also a season low.

The game included the first scoreless second half in the “Sunday Night Football” package since the 2008 NFL Kickoff game.

“Sunday Night Football” has been the most-watched prime-time program each of the seven weeks of the 2022 NFL season.

There were three prime-time non-NFL programs between Oct. 17 and Sunday to average more than 7 million viewers, topped by CBS’ “60 Minutes” which averaged 7.966 million viewers, seventh for the week behind two NFL games, two NFL pregame shows, the nine-minute Fox NFL postgame show “The OT” and 14 minutes of national “bonus coverage” of the Los Angeles Chargers’ 37- 23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Fox.

“60 Minutes” has been the most-watched non-NFL program all five weeks of the 2022-23 prime-time television season.

The CBS crime drama “FBI” was the most-watched entertainment program for the second consecutive week and third time in the season, averaging 7.106 million viewers, eighth for the week.

“Chicago Fire” was the other non-NFL program to top 7 million viewers, averaging 7.026 million viewers, ninth for the week and first among non-NFL programs on NBC.

The CBS police procedural “East New York” was the most-watched new series for the second time in the four weeks it has aired, averaging 5.291 million viewers, tying CBS’ “FBI: Most Wanted” for 25th for the week and 15th among nonsports programs.

NBC averaged 5.14 million viewers to finish first for the seventh consecutive week, coinciding with the start of the NFL season. CBS was second, averaging 4.72 million. Fox was third, 4.02 million for its 16 hours, 43 minutes of prime-time programming. ABC was fourth, averaging 2.95 million. NBC, CBS and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.

Fox’s most-watched program was the 14 minutes of national “bonus coverage” of the Chargers-Seahawks game, which averaged 12.806 million viewers, third for the week. Its most-watched non-NFL program was Game 4 of the National League Championship Series Saturday which averaged 5.736 million viewers, most among the night’s prime-time programs and 20th for the week.

The procedural drama “9-1-1” was Fox’s most-watched non-sports program for the fifth time in its five episodes of the season, averaging 4.966 million viewers, 29th for the week and 19th among nonsports programs.

“America’s Funniest Home Videos” was ABC’s most-watched program for the second consecutive week, averaging 4.037 million viewers to finish 38th for the week and 24th among non-sports programs.

The CW averaged 440,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program was the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” which averaged 741,000 viewers, 146th among broadcast programs.

The CW aired the lone premiere on the five major broadcast networks, the competition series “Criss Angel’s Magic with the Stars,” which averaged 366,000 viewers, 213th among broadcast programs.

The overall rankings for both programs were not available.

The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of two NFL games; two NFL pregame shows; Fox’s 14 minutes of national “bonus coverage” of the Chargers-Seahawks game; Fox’s nine-minute NFL postgame show, “The OT”; “60 Minutes”; seven CBS scripted programs; NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med”; the two episodes of NBC’s singing competition “The Voice”; TBS’ coverage of Game 2 of the American League Championship Series; and Fox’s coverage of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” was the most-watched cable program, with the Chargers’ 19-16 overtime victory over the Denver Broncos averaging 12.051 million viewers, fourth overall.

TBS was the most-watched cable network, thanks to three nights of American League Championship Series games, averaging 2.852 million viewers. ESPN was second after three consecutive first-place finishes and six in the previous seven weeks, averaging 2.681 million viewers. Fox News Channel was third, averaging 2.261 million viewers, and MSNBC fourth, averaging 1.09 million.

TNT was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.05 million.

The cable top 20 consisted of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and its 13-minute kickoff show; three American League Championship Series games on TBS; two National League Championship Series games on Fox Sports 1; 10 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” four of “Hannity” and one of “The Ingraham Angle”); two NBA games on TNT; and ESPN’s coverage of Saturday’s Alabama-Mississippi State college football game.

“The Watcher” was Netflix’s most-watched program for the second time in the two weeks it has been available, with viewers spending 148.24 million hours watching the seven episodes of the first season of the Ryan Murphy-produced mystery thriller inspired by a true story during the first full week of its release, according to figures released by the streaming service.

Viewership was up 18.6% from the 125.01 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for four days.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was second for the second consecutive week after finishing first each of the first three weeks it was available with 69.1 million hours watched of the 10-episode limited series, which is also produced by Murphy.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is Netflix’s second most-watched English-language television program and third most-overall based on viewership over its first 28 days of release with 856.2 million hours watched.

The fourth season of the science fiction horror series “Stranger Things” is first with 1.35209 billion hours watched of its nine episodes. The first season South Korean survival drama “Squid Game” is first among non-English language programs with 1.65045 billion hours watched of its nine episodes.

“The School for Good and Evil” was Netflix’s most-watched movie with 78.83 million hours watched of the fantasy film in its first five days of release.

“Luckiest Girl Alive” dropped to third with 19.3 million hours watched after finishing first each of the first two weeks the Mila Kunis-starring drama about a successful young woman who struggles with the lingering trauma of a devastating sexual assault as a teenager was available.

“The Curse of Bridge Hollow” was second for the second consecutive week with 25.34 million hours watched in the fantasy comedy’s first full week of release, a 1% increase over the 25.12 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.

The most-watched Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of Saturday’s second leg of the América-Toluca Liga MX semifinal which averaged 1.805 million viewers, 69th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 11th consecutive week and 149th time in 151 weeks, averaging 1.39 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 880,000, followed by UniMas (460,000), Estrella TV (80,000) and Azteca America (70,000).

ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for 150th time in 151 weeks and 202nd time in 204 weeks, averaging 7.684 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.543 million.

The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.683 million.

The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and its 11-minute pre-kickoff show; Fox’s 14 minutes of national bonus coverage of the Chargers-Seahawks game; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; Fox’s nine-minute NFL postgame show, “The OT”; the 17-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America”;  CBS’ “60 Minutes” and “FBI”; NBC’s “Chicago Fire”; and CBS’ “NCIS.”