With rival ABC pinning much of its hopes for summer success behind the interactive new talent show, Rising Star, that debuted Sunday, NBC made a last-minute schedule change to distract potential viewers. NBC scheduled a special Sunday night version of America's Got Talent, already established as summer's most popular competition, to directly compete with Rising Star. CBS won the week in primetime, averaging 5 million viewers. NBC had 4.9 million, ABC had 4.1 million, Univision had 3.02 million, Fox had 2.95 million, Telemundo had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and the CW had 1 million.
NETWORK RATINGS ROUNDUP: JUNE 16-22
NBC Hopes It Can Sink ABC’s ‘Rising Star’
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC is fighting amateur with amateur.
With rival ABC pinning much of its hopes for summer success behind the interactive new talent show, “Rising Star,” that debuted Sunday, NBC made a last-minute schedule change to distract potential viewers.
NBC scheduled a special Sunday night version of “America’s Got Talent,” already established as summer’s most popular competition, to directly compete with “Rising Star.” That move prevented the ABC show from getting off to a fast start: “America’s Got Talent” had 8.1 million viewers, and “Rising Star” had 5.2 million, according to the Nielsen Co.
It was closer among viewers ages 18 to 49 years old, the demographic that both networks care most about (NBC’s 2.67 million to ABC’s 1.93 million). Since viewer engagement is important to “Rising Star,” ABC said it was happy that more than a million people downloaded the show’s app, and viewers cast 5.6 million votes for the show’s contestants.
The U.S.-Portugal World Cup soccer game was the most popular program on TV in the past week, although it is not counted in the prime-time rankings because ESPN’s telecast started earlier in the evening.
CBS won the week in primetime, averaging 5 million viewers. NBC had 4.9 million, ABC had 4.1 million, Univision had 3.02 million, Fox had 2.95 million, Telemundo had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and the CW had 1 million.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Behind World Cup soccer, ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.59 million viewers in prime time. TNT had 2.32 million, USA had 1.95 million, The Disney Channel had 1.89 million and TBS had 1.57 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6 million viewers.
The Top 20
Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 16-22. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.42 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent” (Sunday), NBC, 8.12 million.
3. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.82 million.
4. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.67 million.
5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.72 million.
6. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.5 million.
7. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 6.42 million.
8. “Night Shift,” NBC, 6.25 million.
9. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.19 million.
10. “Dateline NBC,” NBC, 6.02 million.
11. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 5.96 million.
12. “Rookie Blue,” ABC, 5.92 million.
13. “Rizzolli & Isles,” TNT, 5.81 million.
14. “24: Live Another Day,” Fox, 5.63 million.
15. “Mom” (Thursday), CBS, 5.58 million.
16. “Mike & Molly” (Monday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 5.5 million.
17. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 5.35 million.
18. “The Last Ship,” TNT, 5.33 million.
19. “So You Think You Can Dance,” Fox, 5.32 million.
20. “Mike & Molly” (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), CBS, 5.28 million.
Comments (1)
Keith ONeal says:
June 25, 2014 at 3:45 pm
I watched “Rising Star” out of curiousity. The voting system isn’t fair and totally sucks because they don’t allow for voting by phone. I have a cell phone, but it’s NOT a Smartphone, and I do NOT have a tablet or any way to vote either for or against a contestant.