Strong Oscars Boosts Other ABC Shows

NEW YORK (AP) — The 40.4 million people who watched the Oscars this year boosted some other ABC shows, too.

Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars talk show got its biggest audience in the eight years he’s been doing it, the Nielsen Co. said. About 5.8 million people tuned in for the show, which didn’t begin until after midnight on the East Coast. Kimmel’s earlier time slot on weeknights has also increased his visibility.

It was Kimmel’s second-biggest audience ever, behind only a post-Super Bowl program in 2006.

Similarly, the Oscars-focused edition of “Good Morning America” on Monday reached 6.13 million viewers, above the show’s season average of 5.27 million. NBC’s “Today” show on Monday had 4.71 million viewers. ABC said it checked back to 2004 and couldn’t find a larger margin of victory over “Today.” Given the longtime dominance of “Today” up until last year, it’s a good bet “Good Morning America” hasn’t won by that much since the early 1990s.

NBC’s most-watched show on Sunday night had less than a tenth of the “Oscars” audience, so it could be considered an achievement that “Today” got that close the next morning.

“Good Morning America” reached 6.12 million viewers last Wednesday, on co-host Robin Roberts’ return to work after being out since last summer with a blood and bone marrow disease.

The Oscars had its biggest audience in three years.

When the month is over, CBS said it will have beaten all the other networks in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that many advertisers seek for the first February since 1998. Among all viewers, CBS has had the top 31 most popular scripted programs in February.

On the other side, NBC’s mid-winter slide continued. For the second time in six weeks, the network had a smaller prime-time viewership than the Spanish-language network Univision. Only one NBC show, “Chicago Fire,” had a bigger audience than Univision’s music awards show “Premio Lo Nuestro.”

For the week in primetime, ABC averaged 11.3 million viewers (6.9 rating, 11 share). CBS was second with 9.6 million viewers (6.1, 10), Fox had 6.6 million (3.9, 6), NBC had 3.8 million (2.5, 4), the CW had 1.5 million (1.0, 2) and Ion Television had 1.2 million (0.8, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision had a 4 million viewer average (2.1, 3), Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.7, 1), UniMas had 590,000 (0.3, 1), Estrella had 190,000 and Azteca 110,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers (6.3, 11). ABC’s “World News” was second with 8.4 million (5.6, 11) and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.4 million viewers (4.9, 9).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

The Top 20 Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Feb. 18-24. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership. 1. “The Oscars,” ABC, 40.38 million. 2. “Oscars Red Carpet Live” (Sunday, 8 p.m.), ABC, 25.53 million. 3. “NCIS,” CBS, 21.08 million. 4. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 17.62 million. 5. “Oscars Red Carpet Live” (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), ABC, 16.5 million. 6. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 16.27 million. 7. “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 14.37 million. 8. “Person of Interest,” CBS, 14.23 million. 9. “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 13.66 million. 10. “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 13.41 million. 11. “Oscars Red Carpet Live” (Sunday, 7 p.m.), ABC, 12.44 million. 12. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 11.21 million. 13. “Elementary,” CBS, 11.19 million. 14. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 10.69 million. 15. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 10.65 million. 16. “Modern Family,” ABC, 10.62 million. 17. “Mike & Molly,” CBS, 10.33 million. 18. “2 Broke Girls,” CBS, 10.25 million. 19. “Castle,” ABC, 9.85 million. 20. “Vegas,” CBS, 9.52 million.