By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Former President Donald Trump reached less than a million measurable television viewers over the weekend in his return to the public stage at a North Carolina political event.
Newsmax averaged just under 700,000 viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Trump spoke, the Nielsen company said. His speech was also carried live on One America News Network and C-SPAN, but their audience is not measured by Nielsen.
Fox News Channel did not carry the speech by the former president beloved by many of its viewers. The network averaged more than 1.5 million viewers for its typical Saturday night fare of Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro.
Although Trump couldn't eclipse Fox's regular lineup, at least for Newsmax, showing the former president live appeared to be a good business decision for the network. So far this year, Newsmax has averaged 202,000 viewers in primetime, including the more heavily trafficked weeknights, Nielsen said.
Later on Saturday, Fox's debut hour with conservative media personality Dan Bongino reached 1.8 million people, making it the most-watched cable news show of the weekend.
The broadcast networks made a swift turn into summer, with NBC's "America's Got Talent" topping the ratings upon its return. CBS led for the week, averaging 3.3 million viewers in primetime. ABC had 3.17 million, NBC had 3.16 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 970,000 and Telemundo had 880,000.
TNT led the cable news networks, averaging 2.36 million viewers in primetime last week. Fox News Channel had 1.94 million, HGTV had 1.25 million, MSNBC had 1.23 million and TBS had 938,000.
ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.3 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 6.3 million, and the "CBS Evening News" had 4.7 million.
For the week of May 31 to June 6, the 20 most-watched programs in primetime, their networks and viewerships:
1. "America's Got Talent," NBC, 7.37 million.
2. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.06 million.
3. "Celebrity Family Feud," ABC, 5.74 million.
4. "Kennedy Center Honors," CBS, 5.32 million.
5. "Station 19," ABC, 4.9 million.
6. "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 4.78 million.
7. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 4.76 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 4.72 million.
9. NBA Playoffs: Phoenix at L.A. Lakers (Thursday), TNT, 4.53 million.
10. "FBI," CBS, 4.27 million.
11. "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 4.23 million.
12. "The Chase," ABC, 4.07 million.
13. "Law & Order: Organized Crime," NBC, 4.02 million.
14. "United States of Al," CBS, 3.951 million.
15. "New Amsterdam," NBC, 3.947 million.
16. Soccer: EE UU vs Mexico, Univision, 3.923 million.
17. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 3.922 million.
18. "FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 3.89 million.
19. "The $100,000 Pyramid," ABC, 3.67 million.
20. NBA Playoffs: L.A. Clippers at Dallas (Friday), ESPN, 3.61 million.
ABC will air 6 additional “Monday Night Football” games starting this week with Bills-Jets
ABC will simulcast six more ESPN "Monday Night Football" games, including Monday's AFC East matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The addition of the six games means ABC will air 17 this season — 14 simulcasts with ESPN (including two playoff games) and three games exclusively on ABC.
The decision to simulcast more games was a joint decision between the NFL and Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN.
The other added games are Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Oct. 21), Tampa Bay at Kansas City (Nov. 4), Houston at Dallas (Nov. 18), Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers (Nov. 25) and New Orleans at Green Bay (Dec. 23).
The only two Mondays the rest of the regular season where ABC will not have a game are Nov. 11 and Dec. 2.
ABC had games all 18 weeks last season due to an agreement with the NFL since there was no new original fall programming due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. With more games on network television, "Monday Night Football" averaged 17.36 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 29% increase over 2022.
It was the best audience numbers for the league's seminal prime-time package since 2000. The Super Bowl 57 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City averaged 29.03 million.
Coming into the season, ABC had eight scheduled simulcasts, including two Saturday Week 18 games and two playoff games, and three exclusive MNF games when there were doubleheaders.
It also continues Disney's move toward putting more sports programming back on ABC. Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles in 2027 will be on the network and the College Football Playoff championship game will also move to ABC the same year.
More games on ABC will also boost the ratings. Kansas City's 26-13 victory... Read More