By STEVEN HERBERT
HOLLYWOOD – “60 Minutes” was the most-watched prime-time television program for the second time in three weeks, while NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the week’s other program to top 5 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
“60 Minutes” averaged 6.022 million viewers. “America’s Got Talent” averaged 5.489 million, one week after finishing first, averaging 5.982 million viewers.
The game show “Generation Gap” was the most-watched of the week’s four premieres on the five major broadcast networks, averaging 3.864 million viewers, fifth for the week and second among ABC programs behind “Celebrity Family Feud,” which was third, averaging 4.982 million viewers.
Viewership for the “Generation Gap” premiere was 8.1% larger than the season premiere of “Press Your Luck” which preceded it and averaged 3.573 million viewers, ninth for the week and first in its Thursday 8-9 p.m. time slot.
“The Final Straw” was second among the week’s premieres, averaging 3.007 million viewers, 17th. for the week, including trailing two cable programs, and first in its 9-10 P.M. Sunday time slot. The physical comedy game show retained 60.6% of the audience of “Celebrity Family Feud” which preceded it.
The premiere of the four-episode ABC News series investigating murders, “The Fatal Flaw: A Special Edition of 20/20,” averaged 2.067 million viewers following “Generation Gap,” 52nd for the week, including trailing nine cable programs.
“The Fatal Flaw” was second in its 10-11 p.m. Thursday time slot behind the Fox News Channel political talk show, “The Ingraham Angle,” which averaged 2.158 million viewers, 47th. for the week and eighth among cable programs.
The other premiere, the CBS competition program, “The Challenge: USA,” averaged 2.326 million viewers, 42nd, for the week, including trailing seven cable programs. “The Challenge: USA” retained 60.6% of the audience for the season premiere of “Big Brother,” which preceded it. “Big Brother” averaged 3.841 million viewers, sixth for the week.
Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” was the most-watched prime-time sporting event for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.636 million viewers, 25th for the week, first among Saturday programs and Fox’s most- watched program.
The audience was the largest for a regular-season MLB game since the “Field of Dreams” game Aug. 12 averaged 5.851 million viewers. Most of the nation received the Boston Red Sox’ 6-5 10-inning victory over the New York Yankees from Fenway Park.
CBS was the most-watched network for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.63 million viewers. NBC was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.59 million. ABC was third for the second consecutive week after finishing first each of the first four full weeks of television’s summer season, thanks to its coverage of the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final.
Fox averaged 1.44 million viewers for its 16 hours of prime-time programming.
The CW averaged 330,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. A rerun of the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” was its most- watched program, averaging 589,000 viewers, 163rd among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular”; the Wednesday and Sunday editions of the CBS alternative series “Big Brother”; six ABC alternative programs — “Celebrity Family Feud,” “Generation Gap,” a rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Press Your Luck,” “The Final Straw” and “The $100,000 Pyramid”; reruns of four CBS scripted programs — “FBI,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Young Sheldon” and “FBI: International”; reruns of the NBC series “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire”; and three editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Each of the four most-watched prime-time cable programs were editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” topped by the Thursday edition, which averaged 3.233 million viewers, 11th overall. It was the fourth consecutive week that at least three broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” have been the most-watched prime-time cable programs.
Fox News Channel had each of the nine most-watched prime-time cable programs to be the most-watched cable network in prime time for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 1.935 million viewers. Hallmark Channel was second, averaging 1.055 million, a 44.5% increase from its 730,000 average the previous week, when it finished fifth.
HGTV was third for the second consecutive week, averaging 978,000, a 14% increase from its 858,000 average the previous week.
The cable top 20 consisted of 12 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — four broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle”; the Sunday Fox News Channel political talk show “Life, Liberty & Levin”; the two-hour July 4 special, “Fox News Presents: An Independence Day Celebration”; the Hallmark Channel movie “My Grown-Up Christmas List”; the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” game between the Yankees and Red Sox; the first two hour-long segments of the USA Network professional wrestling program “WWE Raw” July 4; the TLC dating series “90 Day Fiance”; and History’s UFO investigation series, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”
An episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi fortuna es amarte” was the most-watched Spanish-language program for the fifth consecutive week, with the Thursday episode averaging 1.936 million viewers, 60th for the week.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 136th consecutive week and 138th time in 139 weeks, averaging 1.15 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 880,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (380,000), Estrella TV (110,000) and Azteca America (40,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 135th time in 136 weeks and 187th time in 189 weeks, averaging 7.041 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.246 million.
The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.483 million.
The averages for all three newscasts did not include July 4.
The fourth season of “Stranger Things” was the most watched program on Netflix for the second consecutive week and sixth time in the seven weeks it has been available while each of the first three seasons of the science fiction horror series finished second through fifth.
Viewers spent 188.19 million hours watching its nine episodes between July 4 and Sunday, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday. Viewership was down 37.5% from the 301.28 million hours the previous week, which included the first three days the final two episodes were available.
The season was watched for 1.26694 billion hours during its first 28 days of release.
The first season of “Stranger Things” was second for the week with 45.22 million hours watched, followed by the third season of “The Umbrella Academy” (43.84 million hours), the second season of “Stranger Things” (41.11 million) and the third season (36.59 million).
“The Sea Beast” was the most-watched movie on Netflix, with viewers spending 33.52 million hours watching the computer-animated film about a young girl who stows away on the ship of a legendary sea monster hunter in its first three days of release.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud”; “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular” on NBC; ABC’s “Generation Gap”; the Wednesday edition of CBS’ “Big Brother”; a rerun of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; a rerun of CBS’ “FBI”; ABC’s “Press Your Luck”; and the Sunday edition of “Big Brother.”
