“America’s Got Talent” and “60 Minutes” were the only programs to top 5 million viewers in the latest weekly prime-time television ratings while the ESPN-ABC simulcast of the NBA draft and a rerun of the CBS action drama “NCIS: Hawai’i” were the only others to top 4 million.
“America’s Got Talent” averaged 5.985 million viewers, the second- smallest audience for the NBC talent competition among its four episodes broadcast this summer, only ahead of the June 13 episode which averaged 5.963 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
“America’s Got Talent” has been the most-watched non-sports program for each of the four full weeks of the 2023 summer television season.
“60 Minutes” averaged 5.73 million viewers for an edition of the CBS news magazine with three previously aired segments that were updated for Sunday’s broadcast, the second-largest of its five editions during the summer season, behind the 5.96 million for the June 4 edition.
The ESPN-ABC simulcast of Thursday’s NBA draft averaged a combined 4.936 million viewers, a record for the NBA draft. The 2.718 million average for ESPN topped all prime-time cable programming for the week.
“NCIS: Hawai’i” averaged 4.124 million viewers, the most for a rerun of a scripted program this summer.
CBS had six of the week’s eight most-watched programs to finish first for the first time this summer, averaging 2.87 million viewers. NBC was second, averaging 2.53 million viewers.
ABC was third, averaging 2.05 million viewers. Its most-watched program was the alternative courtroom comedy “Judge Steve Harvey,” 13th for the week averaging 3.051 million viewers.
CBS, NBC and ABC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.42 million viewers for its 15 hours, 40 minutes of prime-time programming. The professional wrestling program “WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown,” was its most-watched program for the second consecutive week, finishing 36th, averaging 2.354 million viewers.
The CW averaged 340,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program for the fourth time in five weeks was the superhero series “Superman & Lois,” which averaged 656,000 viewers, 131st among broadcast programs, one spot below the rerun of the 1960-68 CBS comedy “The Andy Griffith Show” which aired at 8:30 p.m. June 19 on MeTV and averaged 657,000 viewers. Its overall rank was not available.
The lone premiere on the five major English-language broadcast networks, the NBC alternative series, “LA Fire & Rescue,” was 15th, averaging 3.006 million viewers.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of the NBC alternative programs “America’s Got Talent,” “American Ninja Warrior” “LA Fire & Rescue” and its coverage of Saturday’s Ally 400 NASCAR race; “60 Minutes”; the ESPN-ABC simulcast of Thursday’s NBA draft; reruns of 10 CBS scripted series; and episodes of four ABC alternative series.
ESPN’s coverage of the College World Series made it the most-watched cable network, averaging 1.769 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second and first among cable news networks for the second consecutive week and 122nd time in 123 weeks, averaging 1.5 million viewers.
MSNBC was the other cable network to top 1 million viewers, averaging 1.272 million.
CNN was third among cable news networks and sixth overall, averaging 690,000 viewers.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of ESPN’s coverage of the NBA draft and five College World Series games; two MSNBC political talk shows — “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” which followed it on June 19; seven Fox News Channel political talk shows — four broadcasts of “Hannity,” two of “The Ingraham Angle” and the June 19 edition of “Fox News Tonight” hosted by Kayleigh McEnany; the first two hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling show, “WWE Raw”; nine minutes of interstitial programming between episodes of “1883” on Paramount Network; the Discovery competition series “Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing”; and the BET Awards.
“Extraction 2” was Netflix’s most-watched title for the second consecutive week, with viewers watching the Chris Hemsworth-starring action film for 87.3 million hours in its first full week of release, nearly matching the 88.4 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days.
Netflix’s most-watched television program was the 24-episode Mexican drama “The Surrogacy,” which was watched for 80.5 million hours in it first full week of release, 41% more than the 57.1 million hours the previous week when it was available for five days.
The most-watched Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of Sunday’s Mexico-Honduras CONCACAF Gold Cup game which averaged 2.238 million viewers, 39th overall.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 46th consecutive week and 184th time in 186 weeks, averaging 1.22 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 650,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (370,000) and Estrella TV (70,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 238th time in 239 weeks, averaging 7.37 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.217 million viewers. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.471 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes” and “NCIS: Hawai’i”; ESPN and ABC’s simulcast coverage of the NBA draft; CBS’ “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “NCIS,” “Young Sheldon” and “FBI”; NBC’s coverage of the Ally 400 NASCAR race; and CBS’ “FBI: Most Wanted.”
