CBS cop show ‘East New York’ tops week’s television premieres

By STEVEN HERBERT

The CBS police procedural “East New York” drew the largest audience among the week’s four premieres on the five major broadcast television networks, thanks in part to following the week’s most-watched entertainment program, “The Equalizer,” according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

“East New York” averaged 5.271 million viewers, 19th among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Sept. 26 and Sunday and 14th among non-NFL programs. It retained 74.3% of “The Equalizer’s” audience. “The Equalizer” averaged 7.094 million viewers, seventh for the week behind two NFL games, three NFL pregame shows and the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.”

CBS’ other premiere, “So Help Me Todd,” drew the second-largest audience among the seven premieres for the 2022-23 prime-time television season, averaging 4.819 million viewers, 21st for the week and 16th among non-NFL programs. The legal drama won its 9-10 p.m. Thursday time slot. It retained 74.6% of the audience of “Ghosts” the preceded it.

ABC’s lone premiere, the police procedural “The Rookie: Feds,” averaged 2.172 million viewers, 60th among the week’s broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The U.S. premiere of the Canadian legal drama “Family Law” averaged 299,000 viewers, 216th among broadcast television programs and 10th among CW programs.

“60 Minutes” was the most-watched non-NFL program for the second time in the two-week-old season, averaging 10.274 million viewers, sixth for the week. The broadcast followed a 52-minute runover of CBS’ NFL coverage in the Eastern and Central time zones where the bulk of the nation’s population lives.

The runover, mainly of the Green Bay Packers’ 27-24 overtime victory over the New England Patriots, averaged 30.91 million viewers. The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in network’s weekly average.

For the fourth time in the four-week-old NFL season, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the most-watched prime-time program, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 41-31 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers averaging 20.853 million viewers, its second-largest audience of the season behind Tampa Bay’s 19-3 victory over Dallas Cowboys in the season opener Sept. 11 which averaged 23.296 million viewers.

The total audience for Sunday’s game, which includes streaming viewership on Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL digital platforms, was 22.2 million viewers, also second for the season behind the 25 million for the season opener, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics figures.

NBC finished first for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 6.13 million viewers. CBS was second, averaging 5.7 million, and ABC third, averaging 4.04 million viewers, all for 22 hours of prime-time programming.

“Chicago Fire” NBC’s most-watched non-NFL program for the second consecutive week, averaging 6.726 million viewers, 10th overall and fifth among non-NFL programs.

ABC’s portion of the “Monday Night Football” simulcast was its most-watched program, averaging 10.175 million. ESPN’s portion of the Cowboys’ 23-16 victory over the New York Giants averaged 7.739 million viewers, the most among cable programs. The combined audience was 17.914 million, second for the week.

ABC’s most-watched non-sports program was the season premiere of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” 31st for the week averaging 3.775 million viewers.

Fox averaged 2.2 million viewers for its 15 hours, 24 minutes of prime- time programming, topped by the procedural drama “9-1-1,” 27th for the week and 21st among non-sports programs, averaging 4.556 million.

The CW averaged 300,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. The 8 p.m. Friday rerun of the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” was its most-watched program, averaging 462,000 viewers, 181th among broadcast programs.

The 20 most-watched prime-time television programs consisted of two NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; “60 Minutes”; nine CBS scripted programs; NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.”; and two episodes of NBC’s singing competition “The Voice.”

ESPN returned to the top of the cable ratings after a one-week absence, averaging 2.149 million viewers. Fox News Channel averaged 2.121 million viewers to finish second for the fourth time in five weeks. MSNBC averaged 1.147 million viewers for its fifth consecutive third-place finish after seven consecutive second-place finishes.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” drew the second-largest weekly audience for a Netflix program with viewers spending 299.84 million hours watching the 10-episode limited series the first full week it was available, according to figures released by the streaming service.

Viewership was up 52.8% from the 196.2 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.

The only Netflix program to be watched more during a week was the fourth season of “Stranger Things,” which was watched for 335.01 million hours the week of May 30 to June 5, the first full week it was available.

“Lou” was Netflix’s most-watched movie, with viewers spending 46.19 million hours watching the thriller the first full week it was available. Viewership was up 13.9% from the 40.57 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days and finished second behind “Do Revenge.”

“Do Revenge” finished third in the most recent week with 15.92 million hours watched, 62.6% less than the 42.55 million hours watched the previous week.

The most-watched Spanish-language television program was Univision’s coverage of Mexico’s 3-2 loss to Colombia in a men’s exhibition soccer game last Tuesday that averaged 1.916 million viewers, 64th among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the eighth consecutive week and 146th time in 148 weeks, averaging 1.26 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 820,000, followed by UniMas (450,000), Estrella TV (90,000) and Azteca America (60,000).

ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 147th time in 148 weeks and 199th time in 201 weeks, averaging 8.375 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.081 million.

The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.972 million.

The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; the ABC-ESPN “Monday Night Football” simulcast; the 11- minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show; the 20-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America”;  the ABC-ESPN simulcast of the 13-minute “Monday Night Football” kickoff show; CBS’ “60 Minutes,” “The Equalizer,” “FBI” and “Young Sheldon”; and NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med.”