By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --In an otherwise quiet week for television, President Joe Biden was the biggest star.
An estimated 38.2 million people watched him deliver his first State of the Union speech last week, spread across several networks that carried it. Fox News Channel, where 7.2 million people watched, had the biggest single audience, the Nielsen company said.
Otherwise, no primetime program exceeded 8 million live viewers. On a typical night, ABC's "World News Tonight" with David Muir had a bigger audience than anything else on TV last week.
Among individual primetime shows, "60 Minutes" finished on top for the second week in a row, Nielsen said.
CBS won the week in primetime with an average of 4.6 million viewers. ABC had 3.9 million, NBC had 3.2 million, Fox had 1.9 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 930,000.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks in primetime with an average of 3.51 million viewers. CNN had 1.81 million, MSNBC had 1.64 million, ESPN had 1.29 million and HGTV had 1.1 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.8 million viewers, NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.3 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.1 million.
For the week of Feb. 28-March 6, the 20 most-watched programs in primetime, their networks and viewerships:
1. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.99 million.
2. "State of the Union," Fox News, 7.21 million.
3. "The Equalizer," CBS, 7.13 million.
4. "NCIS," CBS, 7.12 million.
5. "Chicago Med," NBC, 7.05 million.
6. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 6.89 million.
7. "State of the Union Preview," Fox News, 6.62 million.
8. "American Idol," ABC, 6.57 million.
9. "State of the Union Analysis" (10:10-10:32 p.m. Eastern), Fox News, 6.55 million.
10. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 6.48 million.
11. "State of the Union," ABC, 6.3 million.
12. "State of the Union: Republican Response," Fox News, 5.98 million.
13. "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 5.91 million.
14. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.9 million.
15. "Chicago PD," NBC, 5.81 million.
16. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 5.7 million.
17. "Ghosts," CBS, 5.52 million.
18. "Bob Hearts Abishola," CBS, 5.5 million.
19. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 5.45 million.
20. "State of the Union Analysis" (10:46-11 p.m. Eastern), Fox News, 5.44 million.
“Scandal” cast will reunite for online script reading for hurricane relief in western North Carolina
The cast of ABC's hit political drama "Scandal" may need to brush up on their snappy, speedy delivery known as "Scandal-pace," because they're reuniting for a good cause. Its stars including Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young will take part in a live virtual script reading on Nov. 17 to raise money for hurricane relief in western North Carolina.
Beginning Friday, fans can go online and donate to reserve a spot for the online reading. Proceeds will benefit United Way of North Carolina. Everyone who donates will be able to take part in a virtual pre-event with the cast and Shonda Rhimes will give an introduction.
Additional guest stars will also be announced. The online fundraising platform Prizeo is also holding a contest where one person who donates online via their site will be selected to read a role from the script with the actors. The winner should not worry about the "Scandal"-pace, assured Young over Zoom.
"Whomever the lucky reader is can read at whatever pace they want," she said.
Young, who played Mellie Young, the first lady and later Republican presidential nominee on "Scandal," was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. She came up with the idea for the effort with a friend and took it to her fellow "Scandal" actors, who all jumped on board. Young said this is the first script reading the cast has all done together since the show ended after seven seasons in 2018.
Which episode they will be reading has not been announced yet.
Young said it's "been devastating" to see so many parts of her hometown badly damaged by Hurricane Helene, which ravaged western North Carolina one month ago.
To research the best use for donations, Young spoke with numerous political leaders, including North... Read More