CBS’s Face the Nation moderated by John Dickerson was the most-watched Sunday public affairs program on August 6th.
FTN was -3 percent in total viewers, but +3 percent in the demo versus the comparable Sunday in 2016. The broadcast opened with an interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), followed by a joint interview with Governors John Kasich (R-OH) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO).
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd finished runner up to Face the Nation in total viewers, but remained at the top among viewers from the key A25-54 demo.
MTP was retitled this past Sunday due to coverage of the Women’s British Open. Almost 50 stations in the Mountain and Pacific time zones didn’t carry the program due to Open coverage beginning at 8:30 a.m. PT. MTP was -9 percent in total viewers and -28 percent in A25-54 viewers from last year.
The Aug. 6 numbers won’t be included in MTP’s quarter or season averages.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished No. 3 in total viewers, and No. 2 in the news demo this past Sunday. Though the program posted year-over-year audience declines on Aug. 6 (-8 percent in total viewers and -9 percent in the news demo), This Week continues to draw its largest overall audience in 18 years – since the 1998-1999 broadcast season.
Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace had a poor week relative to last year, -19 percent in total viewers and -23 percent in the news demo.
The show’s cable replays later in the day delivered a combined 2.61 million total viewers and 603,000 demo viewers. Altogether, the Aug. 6 edition of FNS delivered a combined 3.8 million total viewers and 917,000 from the A25-54 demo.
Al Punto hosted by Jorge Ramos continues to post year-over-year total viewer growth in the current 2016/2017 season (+8 percent), and is posting improvement among adults 18-34 (+12 percent) adults 18-49 (+11 percent) and adults 25-54 (+6 percent).
Editor’s note: Face The Nation’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 80.6 percent of the CBS affiliates.
The numbers for August 6, 2017:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation (1/2 hr) | 3.041 M | 702 k |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 2.996 M | 838 k |
| ABC | This Week | 2.845 M | 799 k |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.191 M | 314 k |
| UNI | Al Punto | 654 k | 249 k |