‘Adele One Night Only’ helps CBS’ prime-time TV ratings sing

Adele’s two-hour concert special on CBS had the largest audience for an entertainment program in the eight-week-old 2021-22 prime-time television season.

“Adele One Night Only” averaged 10.33 million viewers, seventh among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Nov. 8 and Sunday, behind three NFL games, NBC’s 10-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show, Fox’s six-minute NFL postgame show Sunday and “60 Minutes,” according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday. “60 Minutes,” which Adele followed, averaged 12.55 million viewers, third for the week and the most for the news magazine this season.

“Yellowstone” was the highest-rated scripted program for the second consecutive week, with the Paramount Network neo-western averaging 7.49 million viewers, third among non-NFL programs and 10th overall.

CBS also had the top-ranked comedy “Young Sheldon” and highest-rated new series “FBI International.”

“Young Sheldon” averaged 7.04 million viewers, 14th overall and sixth among non-NFL programs. “FBI International” averaged 5.59 million, 22th overall and 13th among non-NFL program.

CBS finished first in the network race for the second time in the season, averaging 6.11 million. NBC was second, averaging 5.65 million. Fox was third, averaging 3.83 million viewers.

ABC was fourth among the major English-language networks, averaging 3.75 million viewers. The CW averaged 490,000 viewers.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” topped the prime-time listings for the second consecutive week, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 41-14 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders averaging 16.74 million viewers.

NBC’s biggest audience for a non-NFL program was for the Tuesday edition of “The Voice,” which averaged 6.85 million viewers, 15th for the week and seventh among non-NFL programs.

Fox’s ratings leader was “‘Thursday Night Football,” second for the week, averaging 12.92 million viewers for the Miami Dolphins’ 22-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Fox’s best rating for a non-NFL program was for the procedural drama “9-1-1,” which averaged 5.01 million viewers, 29th overall and 20th among non-NFL programs.

ABC’s biggest draw was the 55th annual CMA Awards, 16th for the week and eighth among non-NFL programs, averaging 6.83 million viewers.

The crime drama “Walker” topped the CW’s ratings for the third consecutive week, averaging 870,000 viewers, 124th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; five NFL pregame shows; one NFL postgame show; “Adele One Night Only”; “60 Minutes”; three CBS scripted series programs; four NBC entertainment programs; “Yellowstone”; and the CMA Awards.

“Monday Night Football” was at the top of the cable ratings for the ninth time in nine 2021 regular-season broadcasts, with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 29-27 victory over the Chicago Bears averaging 12.11 million viewers, fourth for the week.

ESPN averaged 2.92 million viewers to win the cable network race for the second consecutive week after three consecutive third-place finishes. Fox News Channel was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.37 million. Hallmark Channel rose one spot to third, averaging 1.44 million. MSNBC rose one spot to fourth, averaging 1.12 million viewers.

CNN dropped one spot to 12th, averaging 619,000 viewers. CNN also trailed Paramount Network (897,000), TLC (859,000), TBS (845,000), HGTV (820,000), Discovery (710,000), Food Network (710,000) and TNT (627,000).

The top 20 cable programs consisted of “Monday Night Football” and its 13-minute pregame show; “Thursday Night Football” on NFL Network; ESPN’s coverage of the Mississippi-Texas A&M college football game; 12 Fox News Channel political talk shows — five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and two of “The Ingraham Angle” — three episodes of Paramount Network scripted programming — two of “Yellowstone” and the premiere of “Mayor of Kingstown”; and the Hallmark Channel movie, “My Christmas Family Tree.”

“Squid Game” was the most streamed program for the fourth consecutive week among the five streaming services for which Nielsen releases figures, despite a 25.4% drop in viewership, with viewers spending 2.25 billion minutes watching the nine-episode South Korean Netflix survival drama the week of Oct. 11-17.

The Oct. 15 release of its 10-episode third season made the psychological thriller “You” among four programs in the latest top 10 not in the previous week’s, with viewers spending 1.94 billion minutes watching its 30 episodes, second for the week.