CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson was the top-rated Sunday public affairs program in total viewers on August 23. FTN was up +15 percent in viewers and even in the key A25-54 demo, compared to the same week last year.
However, NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd won the key demo for the second consecutive week, giving MTP its first back-to-back demo wins since the Sochi Olympics in 2014. MTP is up +32 percent in viewers and +35 percent in the demo, showing double-digit growth compared to last year on four conesectuive Sundays. MTP managed to win the demo despite CBS and ABC both having phone interviews with Donald Trump. MTP continues to pick up momentum as we approach Todd’s one-year anniversary on September 7.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished third in total viewers and second in the demo. This Week was up +16 percent in viewers and up +11 percent in the demo, making it five out of six weeks that This Week is up year-to-year in both categories.
MTP delivered an additional 1.04 total viewers and 373,000 A25-54 viewers with rebroadcasts on NBC and MSNBC. Fox News Sunday combined with cable replays for 3.9 million viewers. Replays on FNC averaged a combined 2.47 million total viewers and 467,000 in the demo.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 76.3% of the country.
The numbers for August 23:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.50M | 793,000 |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3.23M | 959,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.19M | 941,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.45M | 433,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto* |
*Al Punto numbers will be added as they become available