For the second consecutive week, “America’s Got Talent” and “60 Minutes” were the only programs to top 5 million viewers in the prime-time television ratings.
“America’s Got Talent” averaged 5.97 million viewers, the second- smallest audience for the NBC talent competition among its five episodes broadcast this summer, only ahead of the June 13 episode that averaged 5.963 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Wednesday.
“60 Minutes” averaged 5.101 million viewers for an edition of the CBS news magazine with two previously aired segments that were updated for Sunday’s broadcast, the third-largest of its eight editions during the summer season, including the two that aired at 8 p.m., behind the 5.96 million for the June 4 edition and 5.73 million for the June 25 edition.
NBC’s coverage of the inaugural Grant Park 220 street race in Chicago was the only other prime-time program to top 4 million viewers between June 26 and Sunday, averaging 4.622 million, third for the week.
The rain-delayed and weather-shortened race had a total audience delivery of 4.795 million viewers, including streaming viewership on Peacock, the most for a NASCAR Cup Series race on NBC since the 2017 Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
CBS had seven of the week’s 10 most-watched programs to edge NBC, 2.69 million-2.62 million, to finish first for the second consecutive week.
ABC was third for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.14 million viewers. Its most-watched program was the season premiere of the game show “Generation Gap,” which averaged 3.219 million viewers, 11th for the week.
CBS, NBC and ABC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.27 million viewers for its 15 hours, four minutes of prime-time programming. The professional wrestling program “WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown,” was its most-watched program for the third consecutive week, finishing 28th, averaging 2.511 million viewers.
The CW averaged 340,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program for the fifth time in six weeks was the superhero series “Superman & Lois,” which averaged 581,000 viewers, tying for 140th among broadcast programs with an episode of the 1962-71 CBS comedy “The Beverly Hillbillies” that aired at 9 p.m. June 27 on MeTV. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of the NBC alternative programs “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior” and its coverage of Sunday’s Grant Park 220 NASCAR race; “60 Minutes”; back- to-back reruns of “The Price is Right at Night” on CBS; reruns of eight CBS scripted series; ESPN’s coverage of the championship game of the College World Series; and episodes of five ABC alternative series.
ESPN’s coverage of the championship game of the College World Series was the most-watched cable program, with LSU’s 18-4 victory over Florida in Game 3 of the best-of-three series June 26 averaging 3.428 million viewers, seventh overall, second among prime-time sports programs and most ever for a College World Series game on an ESPN platform.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network, averaging 1.391 million viewers and finishing first among cable news networks for the third consecutive week and 123rd time in 124 weeks. MSNBC rose one spot to second, averaging 1.145 million.
ESPN dropped two spots to third, averaging 1.014 million viewers, the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers in prime.
CNN was third among cable news networks and tied for 10th overall with Discovery, averaging 564,000 viewers, one week after finishing sixth, averaging 690,000 viewers.
The top 20 cable programs were not available.
Netflix’s most-watched title was the “The Witcher,” with viewers spending 73 million hours watching the first five episodes of the third season of the fantasy drama during the first four days they were available.
“Extraction 2” was Netflix’s most-watched film for the third time in the three weeks it has been available, with viewers watching the Chris Hemsworth-starring action film for 36.2 million hours, increasing its total viewership to 211.9 million hours.
The most-watched Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of Sunday’s Mexico-Haiti CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer game which averaged 2.19 million viewers, 33rd overall.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 47th consecutive week and 185th time in 187 weeks, averaging 1.21 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 690,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (470,000) and Estrella TV (80,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 239th time in 240 weeks, averaging 7.486 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 5.949 million viewers. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.412 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s coverage of the Grant Park 220 NASCAR race; the 9 p.m. and 8 p.m. reruns of CBS’ “The Price is Right at Night; CBS’ “FBI: Most Wanted”; ESPN’s coverage of the final game of the College World Series; and CBS’ “Young Sheldon,” “NCIS” and “The Neighborhood.”
