Viewing Declines, But NBC Leads In 18-49; CBS Tops In Total Viewers
- by Wayne Friedman , October 12, 2016
Three weeks into the new season, NBC is averaging a Nielsen 2.5 prime-time rating/9 share (3.2 million 18-49 viewers) when looking at live program viewing and seven days of time-shifted viewing. CBS is at a 2.2/8 (2.81 million 18-49 viewers), with ABC at 1.7/6 (2.18 million) and Fox at 1.5/6 (1.98 million).
NBC continues to see strong results from “Sunday Night Football” and “The Voice.” But overall NFL prime-time programming -- across all networks -- has tumbled around 10% so far.
Overall viewership continues to erode as it has in years past, with NBC down 7%, CBS dropping 9%, ABC falling 11% and Fox losing 12% among those 18-49 viewers. A year ago, NBC was at 2.7/9 (3.45 million 18-49 viewers), followed by CBS at 2.4/8 (3.07 million 18-49 viewers), ABC with 1.9/6 (2.44 million), and Fox at 1.8/6 (2.26 million).
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CBS still remains on top of all TV networks when it comes to all prime-time viewers this year, averaging 10.5 million. NBC is at 8.76 million, followed by ABC with 6.82 million, Fox at 4.5 million, Univision and Telemundo each with 1.75 million, ION at 1.13 million, and CW with 1.10 million.
Still surprising, Telemundo continues its surge ahead of Univision -- now at a 0.7 rating/2 share (900,000 18-49 viewers versus 720,000 a year ago) versus 0.6/2 for Univision, (790,000 18-49 viewers; 1.1 million last season). The two Spanish-language networks are tied when it comes to total prime-time average viewers --1.75 million each.
The CW and ION Network are next, with CW averaging 430,000 18-49 viewers (a 0.3 rating/1 share) and ION at 360,000 18-49 viewers (0.3/1). Through the same period a year ago, CW was at 570,000 18-49 viewers, with 350,000 for ION.
CW is at 1.11 million total prime-time viewers versus 1.29 million a year ago. ION has improved slightly, with 1.13 million versus 1.03 million.
