By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Viewers chose cable news over broadcast TV for coverage of the Republican National Convention last week, with the Nielsen Top 20 claiming eight cable programs focused on the GOP confab.
Among the cable news networks, it was Fox News Channel’s week in particular to shine even as it reeled from the ouster of its founding father, Roger Ailes, accused of sexual harassment.
Besides its flurry of high-ranking individual programs, Fox News ranked No. 1 by far in prime-time among cable networks, averaging 4.1 million viewers. And it was second among all networks, cable or broadcast, behind only by NBC.
Meanwhile, CNN, the week’s second-most-watched cable network, drew an average of 2.4 million viewers with its GOP coverage.
Among the networks overall, NBC led with a prime-time average of 5.1 million viewers, for what NBC says is its longest winning streak, excluding Olympics coverage, in 14 years. Last week’s top two shows were editions of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”
But Fox News took the third and fourth slots with its coverage of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s acceptance speech. For the week, Fox News’ 4.1 million average was followed by CBS with 4.0 million. ABC had 3.8 million and CNN had 2.4 million, with the Fox Broadcasting network right behind 2.2 million.
Univision had 1.7 million viewers, Telemundo had 1.5 million, followed by MSNBC — the third member of the cable-news trio — with 1.4 million. After that, ION Television had 1.2 million, and the CW had 890,000 viewers.
In the evening news derby, NBC’s “Nightly News” held the top spot in a squeaker with 7.56 million viewers, followed by ABC’s “World News Tonight” with 7.50 million. The “CBS Evening News” had 6.09 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 18-24. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.10 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 10.78 million.
3. GOP Convention Coverage (10 p.m. Thursday), Fox News Channel, 9.72 million.
4. GOP Convention Coverage (11 p.m. Thursday), Fox News Channel, 9.10 million.
5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.87 million.
6. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 7.68 million.
7. GOP Convention Coverage (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 7.34 million.
8. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.76 million.
9. “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 6.72 million.
10. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.64 million.
11. “Hannity” (Thursday), Fox News Channel, 6.61 million.
12. “The Kelly File” (Thursday), Fox News Channel, 6.55 million.
13. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.37 million.
14. GOP Convention Coverage (Monday, 10 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 6.348 million.
15. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 6.347 million.
16. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 6.00 million.
17. GOP Convention Coverage (Thursday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 5.80 million.
18. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 5.70 million.
19. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 5.61 million.
20. “The Kelly File” (Wednesday), Fox News Channel, 5.57 million.
Lawsuit Alleges That TikTok Was Aware Of Risks Its Platform Posed To Kids and Teens
TikTok was aware that its design features are detrimental to its young users and that publicly touted tools aimed at limiting kids' time on the site were largely ineffective, according to internal documents and communications exposed in a lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky.
The details are among redacted portions of Kentucky's lawsuit that contains the internal communications and documents unearthed during a more than two year investigation into the company by various states across the country.
Kentucky's lawsuit was filed this week, alongside separate complaints brought forth by attorneys general in a dozen states as well as the District of Columbia. TikTok is also facing another lawsuit from the Department of Justice and is itself suing the Justice Department over a federal law that could ban it in the U.S. by mid-January.
The redacted information — which was inadvertently revealed by Kentucky's attorney general's office and first reported by Kentucky Public Radio — touches on a range of topics, most importantly the extent to which TikTok knew how much time young users were spending on the platform and how sincere it was when rolling out tools aimed at curbing excessive use.
Beyond TikTok use among minors, the complaint alleges the short-form video sharing app has prioritized "beautiful people" on its platform and has noted internally that some of the content-moderation metrics it has publicized are "largely misleading."
The unredacted complaint, which was seen by The Associated Press, was sealed by a Kentucky state judge on Wednesday after state officials filed an emergency motion to seal it.
When reached for comment, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said: "It is highly irresponsible of the Associated Press to... Read More