College, NFL football dominate TV ratings race

For the first time in the 15-week-old 2022-23 television season, NFL programming did not top the prime-time ratings.

A College Football Playoff semifinal on ESPN, Georgia’s 42-41 victory over Ohio State on Saturday night, averaged 21.736 million viewers, the most among prime-time broadcast and cable programs, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Wednesday.

The audience for the game, whose outcome was not decided until Noah Ruggles missed a 50-yard field goal attempt with three seconds to play, was the largest for a prime-time College Football Playoff semifinal since the first year of the playoffs, when an average of 28.27 million viewers watched Ohio State’s 42-35 upset of top-ranked Alabama on New Year’s Day 2015.

Viewership was up 31.7% from the 16.506 million average for Georgia’s 34-11 victory over Michigan in the New Year’s Eve 2021 prime-time semifinal.

ESPN has televised the College Football Playoff semifinals and title game since its inception.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 17.177 million viewers, third for the week behind the Georgia-Ohio State game and the 11-minute studio show that preceded it and averaged 21.06 million viewers.

NFL programming had topped the prime-time ratings each of the first 16 weeks of the regular season. “Sunday Night Football” led all prime-time programs 14 times. Fox’s NFL postgame show finished first the week of Nov. 7-13. NBC’s coverage of the Thanksgiving night game between the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots finished first the week of Nov. 21-27.

Five nights of bowl coverage plus the “Monday Night Football” game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis Colts put ESPN at the top of the network rankings, averaging 7.422 million viewers.

NBC finished second after 12 first-place finishes over the season’s first 14 weeks, averaging 4.27 million viewers. The only other weeks NBC did not win this season came when Fox aired the World Series.

CBS was third, averaging 3.96 million viewers. CBS’ average included a 22-minute overrun of its afternoon NFL coverage into prime time, whose viewership figure was not available. The overrun is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average.

ABC was fourth, averaging 2.9 million viewers.

The CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” was the top-rated non-sports program for the 12th time in the season, averaging 9.258 million viewers, eighth for the week behind the Georgia-Ohio State game and the 11-minute studio show preceding it; “Sunday Night Football”; an 8-minute NFL postgame show that preceded “60 Minutes”; two “Sunday Night Football” pregame shows; and “Monday Night Football.”

“Yellowstone” was the most-watched entertainment program for the seventh time in the seven weeks an original episode has aired during its fifth season, with the midseason finale of the neo-Western averaging a combined 9.008 million viewers on Paramount Network and CMT, ninth for the week.

The 10:30-11:30 p.m. segment of “Dick Clark’s Prime Time New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2023” was ABC’s highest-ranked program and led all New Year’s Eve entertainment programs, averaging 7.873 million viewers, 13th for the week and second among entertainment programs.

NBC’s highest-ranked non-sports program was “Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party,” 17th for the week, averaging 5.314 million viewers.

Fox averaged 1.72 million viewers, topped by its coverage of Oregon’s 28-27 victory over North Carolina in the Holiday Bowl, which averaged 3.969 million viewers, 22nd for the week.

The CW averaged 390,000 viewers. Its biggest draw was the 9 p.m. Dec. 28 rerun of “World’s Funniest Animals,” which averaged 612,000 viewers, 164th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of four college bowl games and two bowl studio shows on ESPN; two NFL games; four NFL pregame shows; one NFL postgame show; “60 Minutes”; “Yellowstone”; two segments of “Dick Clark’s Prime Time New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2023”; “Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party”; “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash 2023” on CBS; and “The 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors” on CBS.

Three other cable networks joined ESPN in averaging more than 1 million viewers for their prime-time programming — Fox News Channel (1.323 million), Paramount Network (1.246 million) and Hallmark Channel (1.002 million).

The top 20 prime-time cable programs consisted of eight college bowl games and two bowl studio shows on ESPN; “Monday Night Football” and its 13-minute kickoff show; two episodes of “Yellowstone”; the “Yellowstone” prequel “1923”; two editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight”; CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live With Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen”; and TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?” and “Sister Wives.”

The most-streamed program on Netflix was the film “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which was watched for 127.25 million hours in its first full week of release, 54.9% more than the 82.14 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days.

“Wednesday” was Netflix’s most popular television program for the sixth time in the six weeks the supernatural-infused mystery has been available, with 103.96 million hours watched of its eight episodes, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday. That was down 12.3% from the 118.54 million hours watched the previous week.