`Sunday Night Football,’ `60 Minutes,’ CBS Top Television Ratings

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the most-watched program for the 10th time in the 12-week-old 2021-22 prime-time television season, while “60 Minutes” was the most-watched non-NFL program, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

The Green Bay Packers’ 45-30 victory over the Chicago Bears averaged 18.563 million viewers, 6% more than the 17.507 million average for the Kansas City Chiefs’ 22-9 victory over the Denver Broncos the previous Sunday.

CBS’ “60 Minutes” was the most-watched non-sports program for the seventh time in the season, averaging 9.315 million viewers, fifth overall behind three NFL games and NBC’s 10-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show.

The news magazine followed the hourlong runover of CBS’ afternoon NFL coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 33-27 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills in the Eastern and Central time zones where the bulk of the nation’s population lives. The runover averaged 24.94 million viewers. It is not considered a separate program, but is included in the network’s weekly average.

The Paramount Network neo-Western “Yellowstone” was the most-watched entertainment program for the second time in three weeks, averaging 7.537 million viewers, seventh overall.

CBS’ “Young Sheldon” was the most-watched comedy for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 6.958 million viewers, fifth among non-sports programs and 11th overall.

CBS also had the most-watched new series, “FBI International,” 10th among non-NFL programs and 17th overall, averaging 5.791 million viewers.

The CBS police drama “Blue Bloods” was the most-watched program beginning at 10 p.m. for the fifth time in six weeks and eighth time in the season, averaging 5.759 million viewers, 11th among non-NFL programs and 18th overall.

The combination of three of the four most-watched scripted programs — “NCIS,” “FBI” and “Young Sheldon” — the NFL overrun and “60 Minutes enabled CBS to edge NBC, 5.94 million-5.89 million to be the most-watched network for the third time in the season.

Fox was third, averaging 4.54 million viewers for its 16 hours of prime-time programming between Dec. 6 and Sunday. ABC was fourth, averaging 2.79 million. The CW averaged 510,000 for its 14 hours of programming.

NBC, CBS and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.

The premiere of the ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary” was fourth in its 9:30-10 p.m. time slot, 51st among non-NFL programs and 58th overall, averaging 2.876 million viewers. It followed ABC’s most-watched program of the week, “Live in Front of a Studio Audience,” whose re-creations of “The Facts of Life,” and “Diff’rent Strokes,” averaged 4.798 million viewers, 30th for the week and 23rd among non-NFL programs.

The crime drama “Walker” was The CW’s most-watched program for the sixth time in seven weeks, averaging 981,000 viewers, 117th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The 20 most watched prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; four NFL pregame shows; “60 Minutes”; seven CBS entertainment programs; four NBC entertainment programs and “Yellowstone.”

“Monday Night Football” was the most-watched cable program for the 13th time in 13 2021 regular-season broadcasts, with the New England Patriots’ 14-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills Dec. 6 averaging 13.282 million viewers, third for the week.

ESPN was the most-watched cable network for the fourth time in six weeks, averaging 2.491 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second, averaging 2.302 million viewers, one week after its second first-place finish in three weeks.

Hallmark Channel was third for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 1.574 million viewers. MSNBC averaged 1.123 million viewers to finish fourth for the fifth time in six weeks following a fifth-place finish.

CNN tied for 15th with AMC, averaging 577,000 viewers. CNN also trailed Paramount Network (894,000), HGTV (881,000), Freeform (876,000), TBS (789,000), TLC (775,000), Food Network (752,000), TNT (748,000), History (697,000), Discovery (692,000) and Lifetime (598,000).

The top 20 cable programs consisted of “Monday Night Football” and its 14-minute pregame show; “Thursday Night Football” on NFL Network; “Yellowstone”; 14 Fox News Channel political talk shows — five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and four of “The Ingraham Angle”; the Hallmark Channel “Countdown to Christmas” movie “A Royal Queens Christmas”; and History’s long-running chronicle of the quest to solve the more than two-century-old treasure mystery on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island.”

The most-watched prime-time Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of the second and final leg of the finals of soccer’s Torneo Grita México Apertura 2021, averaging 2.429 million viewers, tying for 73rd with the ABC drama, “Big Sky.”

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 106th consecutive week and 108th time in 109 weeks, averaging 1.47 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 990,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (550,000), Estrella TV (110,000) and Azteca America (50,000).

ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 105th time in 106 weeks and 157th time in 159 weeks, averaging 8.391 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.332 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 5.245 million viewers.

The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; Fox’s “Thursday Night Football”; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; NBC’s 10-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; Fox’s 17-minute “Thursday Night Football” pregame show; the 22-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America”; “Yellowstone”; and CBS’ “NCIS” and “FBI.”

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