NBC, ABC Tie For Summer Ratings

Summer TV ratings are now a neck-and-neck race -- with ABC and NBC tied for the lead.

With 13 weeks of summer ratings now completed, both NBC and ABC are averaging a Nielsen 1.34 rating among 18-49 viewers. ABC has maintained the best results -- only losing 2% from the summer session of a year ago. NBC is down 54%.

ABC benefited from the NBA playoffs in early June; NBC is still seeing gains from its “America’s Got Talent.” But it has lost much ground due to unfavorable comparisons to NBC’s early London Summer Olympics coverage. Nielsen summer results stem from May 27 through August 25.

Fox is next, at a 1.13 average rating among 18-49 viewers -- down 18% from a year ago.

So far this season, CBS has been the only network to witness improvement overall -- up 3% to a 1.11 average 18-49 rating. CBS has picked up big viewership from pre-season NFL games. Given that, it leads all networks with a 1.5 average rating for the week ending August 25.

The week before Fox had two pre-season NFL games -- and it led all networks with a 1.25 rating for the week ending August 18.

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