“NCIS” and “FBI,” the only prime-time programs to average more than 8 million viewers last week, helped give CBS a boost to its 15th victory in 16 weeks.
“NCIS” averaged 9.679 million viewers for its sixth first-place finish in the 33-week-old 2020-21 television season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen. Viewership was up 13.3% from the 8.546-million average the previous week, when the action drama also finished first.
“FBI,” which follows “NCIS,” averaged 8.061 million viewers, 6.5% more than its 7.568-million average the previous week, when it finished third.
CBS also had the week’s third- and fourth-ranked programs with “60 Minutes,” which averaged 7.775 million, and “The Equalizer,” which averaged 7.224 million. “Young Sheldon,” seventh for the week, was the top-rated comedy, averaging 6.642 million viewers, and “Blue Bloods,” ninth for the week, averaging 5.87 million viewers.
Two series in NBC’s “Chicago” franchise were the top-rated non-CBS shows. “Chicago Fire” was fifth for the week, averaging 7.221 million viewers, and “Chicago Med” was sixth, averaging 7.087 million viewers. “Chicago P.D” was 11th for the week and second among 10 p.m. programs, averaging 5.668 million viewers.
CBS averaged 4.82 million viewers for its prime-time programming between May 3 and Sunday for its 17th victory of the season. NBC was second, averaging 3.22 million, and ABC third, averaging 2.99 million.
Fox was fourth for the 15th consecutive week, averaging 2.31 million viewers. The CW again was fifth among the five major English-language broadcast networks, averaging 520,000 viewers.
The Sunday edition of “American Idol” had ABC’s biggest audience for the sixth consecutive week it has aired, averaging 5.744 million viewers, 10th for the week.
Fox’s biggest draw was the procedural drama “9-1-1,” which averaged 5.911 million viewers, eighth for the week. A “9-1-1” episode has been Fox’s highest-ranked program all 11 weeks it has aired this season.
The crime drama “Walker” was the highest-rated program on the CW, averaging 979,000 viewers, 123rd among broadcast programs.
The Monday edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” won the cable race, averaging 3.081 million viewers, 39th overall.
The Fox News Channel was at the top of the cable network prime-time ratings for the sixth consecutive week and the 14th time in 15 weeks, averaging 2.104 million viewers. MSNBC was second, averaging 1.452 million viewers, and HGTV third, averaging 1.232 million.
The top 20 cable programs consisted of 12 Fox News Channel programs, five broadcasts of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show” and one program each on Hallmark Channel, HGTV and History.
“Thunder Force” was the most-streamed program in the latest weekly figures released by Nielsen, with viewers watching 950 million minutes of Netflix’s superhero comedy in its first three days of release.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was second for the second consecutive week, with 748 million minutes watched between April 5-11, 19.1% more than the 628 million minutes the previous week. The latest viewership figure includes the first three days of release of its fourth episode.
Joining “Thunder Force” as newcomers to the top 10 were Amazon Prime Video’s horror drama anthology “Them” and Netflix’s British crime drama “The Serpent.”