CBS rules in prime time, claiming 16 of week’s Top 20 shows

NEW YORK (AP) - CBS had a gleam in its eye again last week as the network held on to its Nielsen crown. In prime-time viewership, CBS could claim the most-watched show, “NCIS,” and another 15 of the Top 20 programs. (Remarkably, six of those CBS shows are freshman series.)

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” placed third. NBC’s “This Is Us” was ninth. ABC had a pair of entries with “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Bachelor” (14th and 15th, respectively).

CBS’ broadcast launch of “The Good Fight,” its spinoff of “The Good Wife” that will henceforth be available only on the CBS All Access pay channel, placed 21st with 7.2 million viewers.

The week’s other premiere, CBS’ Katherine Heigl-starring legal drama “Doubt,” opened with a so-so 5.3 million viewers.

In late night, CBS had more good news: “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was the most-watched show in that nocturnal niche for the third consecutive week, averaging 3 million viewers.

Overall in prime time, CBS averaged 7.55 million viewers, while runner-up NBC was far behind with 4.61 million viewers. ABC had 4.50 million viewers, Fox had 2.87 million, Univision had 1.89 million, Telemundo had 1.39 million, ION Television had 1.27 million, and the CW had 1.23 million.

Fox News Channel remained the week’s most popular cable network in prime time, averaging 2.72 million viewers. TNT had 2.92 million, HGTV had 1.57 million and MSNBC had 1.55 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.68 million viewers, while NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.54 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.10 million.

For the week of Feb. 13-21, the top 10 prime-time shows, their networks and viewerships: “NCIS,” CBS, 15.29 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 13.51 million; “The Walking Dead,” AMC, 11.08 million; “Bull,” CBS, 10.64 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.35 million; “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 10.32 million; “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 10.14 million; “Hawaii Five-O,” CBS, 9.62 million; “This is Us,” NBC, 9.04 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 8.61 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.

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Online:

https://www.nielsen.com