“60 Minutes” and “America’s Got Talent” were the only prime-time programs to top 6 million viewers last week, while the concluding two games of hockey’s Stanley Cup Final were the other programs to top 5 million, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The 7 p.m. Sunday edition of the CBS news magazine averaged 6.125 million viewers to finish first among broadcast and cable programs airing between June 20 and Sunday. The 8 p.m. edition with three music-related stories was fifth for the week, averaging 4.8 million viewers.
Both editions consisted of three previously broadcast segments that were updated for the post-season editions.
The NBC talent competition averaged 6.002 million viewers to finish second after being the most-watched non-sports program each of the previous two weeks.
ABC’s coverage of the Colorado Avalanche’s 2-1, title-clinching victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday was third for the week, averaging 5.817 million viewers. Two-time defending champion Tampa Bay’s 3-2 victory in Game 5 Friday to extend the series was fourth, averaging 5.145 million viewers.
Colorado’s 3-2 overtime victory in Game 4 Wednesday was sixth, averaging 4.6 million. The Lightning’s 6-2 victory in Game 3 June 20 was seventh, averaging 4.103 million.
The six-game series averaged 4.602 million viewers, a 91.4% increase over the 2.405 average for Tampa Bay’s five-game victory over the Montreal Canadiens in the 2021 final, with the first two games televised by cable’s NBCSN and the final three by NBC. The concluding four games were in July, the first time Stanley Cup Final games were played in the month.
The Stanley Cup Final made ABC the most-watched network for the fourth time in the four full weeks of the television summer season, averaging 3.55 million. Its most-watched non-hockey program was a rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which was 22nd, including trailing two cable programs, averaging 3.146 million viewers.
CBS was second, averaging 2.95 million, and NBC third, 2.48 million.
ABC, CBS and NBC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.61 million viewers for its 15 hours, 40 minutes of prime-time programming. “MasterChef” was its most-watched program for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 2.346 million viewers to finish 51st, including trailing 13 cable programs.
The CW averaged 440,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program for the fourth consecutive week was the crime drama “Walker,” which averaged 843,000 viewers, 123rd among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of two editions of the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; four Stanley Cup Final games, four pregame shows and the presentation of the Stanley Cup on ABC; reruns of four CBS scripted programs; two reruns of CBS’ “The Price is Right at Night”; and two broadcasts of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Each of the three most-watched prime-time cable programs were editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” topped by the Friday edition, which averaged 3.255 million viewers, 18th for the week. Each of the five most-watched prime- time cable programs the week of June 13-19 were editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in prime-time for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.166 million viewers. MSNBC was second, averaging 1.406 million. ESPN was the other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.205 million viewers.
The cable top 20 consisted of 12 Fox News Channel political talk shows — five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and two of “The Ingraham Angle”; four 60-minute segments of MSNBC’s coverage of the House Select Committee hearings; two editions of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; the Hallmark Channel movie “Two Tickets to Paradise”; and the 9-10 p.m. segment of the USA Network professional wrestling program “WWE Raw.”
The third season of “The Umbrella Academy” was Netflix’s most- watched program, with viewers spending 124.53 million hours watching its 10 episodes in their first five days of release, according to figures released by the streaming service. The fourth season of “Stranger Things” was second with 76.91 million hours watched of its seven episodes following four first-place finishes in each of first four weeks it was available.
The season was watched for 930.32 million hours the first 28 days it was available, shattering the previous record for an English-language television series on Netflix, 656.26 million hours for the second season of the steamy alternate history period drama “Bridgerton.”
“The Man from Toronto” was Netflix’s most-watched movie, with viewers spending 53.89 million hours watching the Kevin Hart-Woody Harrelson- starring action comedy the first three days it was available. The Adam Sandler- starring basketball drama “Hustle” dropped to third with 26.05 million hours watched after back-to-back first-place finishes.
The psychological thriller “Spiderhead” was second with 38.03 million hours watched in its first full week of release, 8.2% more than the 35.4 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days.
An episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi fortuna es amarte” was the most-watched Spanish-language program for the third consecutive week, with the Thursday episode averaging 1.63 million viewers, 57th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 134th consecutive week and 136th time in 137 weeks, averaging 1.08 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 990,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (480,000), 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 133rd time in 134 weeks and 185th time in 187 weeks, averaging 6.635 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.098 million.
The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.541 million.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were the 7 p.m. edition of CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; ABC’s coverage of Games 6 and 5 of the Stanley Cup Final; the 8 p.m. edition of CBS’ “60 Minutes”; ABC’s coverage of Games 4 and 3 of the Stanley Cup Final; a rerun of CBS’ “FBI”; the 8 p.m. rerun of “The Price Is Right at Night”; and the 12- minute Stanley Cup Final Game 3 pregame show.
