(CNS) Posted
Tuesday February 14, 2012– 5:00pm
The second most-watched Grammy telecast combined with
each of the week's seven most-watched scripted programs gave CBS its highest
weekly prime-time television viewership in more than a year.
CBS averaged 15.36 million viewers for its prime-time programming
between Feb. 6 and Sunday, its highest weekly average since the week of Jan. 17-
23, 2011, when it averaged 17.24 million viewers and its programming included
the AFC Championship Game.
CBS more than doubled second-place Fox, which averaged 6.97 million
viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released today by The Nielsen
Co. ABC was third, averaging 6.52 million, followed by NBC, which averaged 6.39
million.
CBS' coverage of Sunday's Grammy Awards ceremony averaged 39.91 million
viewers, its second largest audience behind the 1984 ceremony, which averaged
51.67 million.
CBS also had the week's most-watched scripted series, the 200th episode
of "NCIS," which averaged a season-high 20.98 million viewers to put it
second overall. Also drawing season highs were "Person of Interest" which was
eighth overall, averaging 15.14 million, and "The Mentalist," ninth overall,
averaging 14.68 million.
There were mixed results for two premieres executive produced by Steven
Spielberg.
The highly promoted premiere of NBC's "Smash" won its time slot and
was 17th for the week. The musical drama averaged 11.44 million viewers, the
most for any non-sports program on NBC in the 10-11 p.m. Monday time slot
during the official television season since Nov. 3, 2008, when it aired "SNL
Presidential Bash '08."
The two-hour premiere of the ABC paranormal thriller "The River" was a
distant second in its 9-11 p.m. time slot behind CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles"
and "Unforgettable" and 37th for the week, averaging 7.59 million viewers.
Fox's Wednesday and Thursday "American Idol" episodes were third and
fourth for the week, but the show continued its sharp decline from last season.
The Wednesday episode averaged 19.33 million viewers, down 23.1 percent
from the third-week Wednesday episode last season. The next night's episode
averaged 18.13 million viewers, a 17.2 drop from the third-week Thursday
episode last season.
CBS led among viewers ages 18-49 -- the group ABC, Fox and NBC also
target and advertisers covet -- with a 4.2 rating, the network's highest since
the week of Jan. 17-23, 2011.
CBS was also first among viewers ages 18-34 and 25-54 and had the
highest ratings among those groups since the week of Jan. 17-23, 2011.
The week's most-watched cable program was the first new episode of the
AMC horror series "The Walking Dead" to air since Nov. 27. About 8.1 million
viewers tuned in, putting it 31st among the week's prime-time broadcast and
cable programs.
USA was the most-watched cable network in prime time for the fourth
consecutive week, averaging 2.55 million viewers
The week's most-watched Spanish-language program was the Monday episode
of a Univision telenovela. "Una Familia Con Suerte," ("A Family With Luck")
averaged 4.55 million viewers, putting it 69th among all prime-time broadcast
and cable programs.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network as usual,
averaging 3.64 million viewers for its prime-time programming. Telemundo was
second (1.14 million), followed by TeleFutura (750,000), Estrella TV (200,000)
and Azteca America (160,000).
NBC finished first among the network nightly newscasts for the 126th
consecutive week and 173rd time in the past 174 weeks, averaging 9.5 million
viewers, followed by ABC (7.97 million) and CBS (6.6 million).
The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS' coverage of the
Grammy Awards and "NCIS"; Fox's Wednesday and Thursday "American Idol"
episodes; NBC's "The Voice"; and CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles," "The Big Bang
Theory," "Person of Interest," "The Mentalist" and "60 Minutes."
Copyright
© 2012 City News Service
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