Fewer Reruns On TV Nets’ Summer Skeds

NEW YORK (AP) — One thing in shorter supply during what has always been known as broadcast television’s rerun season is reruns.

Of the 100 most-watched primetime programs on broadcast networks last week, one-third were repeats, according to the Nielsen company. The Fourth of July week would be considered the height of summer rerun season, as it is traditionally the least-watched week of television in a calendar year, or close to it.

A generation ago, the majority of primetime broadcast shows in the summer would be reruns. But modern-day consumers are increasingly less willing to watch programs that have been on the air before, particularly when cable gives them a greater degree of choice. Networks have been forced to adapt by providing more original programming in the summer.

The 33 reruns include a handful of immediate repeats, with episodes of shows like CBS’ “Extant” or NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” that ran originally only days earlier. CBS also had the most popular scripted original series of the week with the premiere of “Zoo.”

The more traditional CBS had 16 of the 33 reruns, including popular shows “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory” that finished in the Nielsen company’s top 10 for the week. ABC was next with 10.

Fox scored a rare win in the weekly prime-time ratings, led by its coverage of Sunday’s women’s World Cup soccer final where the U.S. beat Japan. (The game isn’t on Nielsen’s list of top individual programs since coverage began before primetime).

For the week, Fox averaged 6.7 million viewers, CBS had 5 million, NBC had 4.7 million, ABC had 3.5 million, Univision had 2.1 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1 million and the CW had 730,000.

USA was the most popular cable network, averaging 1.66 million viewers in prime time. Discovery had 1.6 million, TNT had 1.58 million, the Disney Channel had 1.478 million and HGTV had 1.477 million.

ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir’s decision to take a vacation week gave an opening for NBC’s Lester Holt to be sampled during his second week as the new “Nightly News” anchor. The NBC telecast averaged 8.4 million viewers last week, ABC had 7.5 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.7 million.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 29-July 5. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.74 million.

2. “World Cup Post-Game Show,” Fox, 10.16 million.

3. “Zoo,” CBS, 8.18 million.

4. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.68 million.

5. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 7.11 million.

6. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.86 million.

7. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 6.8 million.

8. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.72 million.

9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.67 million.

10. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.28 million.

11. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.22 million.

12. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 5.87 million.

13. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 5.77 million.

14. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 5.72 million.

15. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 5.46 million.

16. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.44 million.

17. “Under the Dome,” CBS, 5.277 million.

18. “Extant,” CBS, 5.275 million.

19. “Mom,” CBS, 5.15 million.

20. “I Can Do That,” NBC, 5.07 million.