The 16-year-old charmer who conquered “The Voice” with her old-school country touch helped boost NBC to a weekly ratings win.
Nearly 10 million viewers watched Chevel Shepherd win the singing contest, making it last week’s most popular entertainment show. Shepherd, of Farmington, New Mexico, was coached by another talent show discovery: inaugural “American Idol” victor Kelly Clarkson.
Football once again proved its ratings dominance, with broadcast and cable games and pre- or post-game shows claiming six of the week’s top 10 spots, according to Nielsen figures released Thursday.
The top-ranked game — and program overall — was NBC’s Sunday night NFL showcase, in which the Seattle Seahawks clinched a spot in the NFC playoffs with a 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
NBC won the week in prime time, averaging 6.7 million. CBS, aided by “60 Minutes” and top 20 reruns of stalwart series including “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory,” followed with 6.4 million.
ABC had 3 million, Fox had 1.7 million, ION Television had 1.28 million, Univision had 1.2 million, Telemundo had 1 million and the CW had 790,000.
Primetime TV viewing typically drops during the holidays for broadcast networks, but Fox was particularly hard hit as it marked its first week this fall without Thursday Night Football. For the week of Dec. 10, when the network’s L.A. Chargers-Kansas
City telecast ranked second among all programs, the network averaged 5.1 million total viewers.
ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.8 million people in prime time. Holiday-spirited Hallmark had 2 million, MSNBC had 1.9 million, Fox News Channel had 1.87 million and CNN had 1.1 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.7 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 8.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.2 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 17-23. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Sunday Night Football: Kansas City at Seattle, NBC, 19.6 million.
2. NFL Regular Season: New Orleans at Charlotte, ESPN, 13.3 million.
3. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-kick,” NBC, 12.6 million.
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 12 million.
5. “Fox NFL Sunday Post-Game,” Fox, 10.3 million.
6. “The Voice (Tuesday),” NBC, 9.9 million.
7. “The Voice (Monday),” NBC 9.5 million.
8. “Thursday Night Football: Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers,” NFL Network, 8.2 million.
9. “Football Night in America,” NBC. 8.1 million.
10. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.7 million.
11. “The Voice (Tuesday),” NBC, 7.2 million.
12. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.1 million.
13. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7 million.
14. “Madam Secretary,” CBS, 6.6 million.
15. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.57 million.
16. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.4 million.
17. “America’s Got Talent: Holiday,” NBC, 6.2 million.
18. Thursday Night Football: Washington at Tennessee, NFL Network, 6.19 million.
19. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 6.1 million.
20. “Thursday Night Football Pre-kick,” NFL Network, 5.6 million.
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.
Category: News