Meet The Press with Chuck Todd and Fox News Sunday delivered strong performances relative to the same Sunday in 2015 (August 9). Face the Nation with John Dickerson and This Week with George Stephanopoulos both fell.
Meet the Press was the No. 1 Sunday show for August 7, both in total viewers and A25-54. The program was up 2 percent in total viewers and up 34 percent in the news demo compared to the same Sunday in 2015. Needless to say, I think having the Olympics helps. An additional 262,000 total viewers and 63,000 in the news demo watched the rebroadcast on MSNBC. Although the show won across the board, MTP was not rated this past Sunday and was re-titled due to Olympics coverage. The program is pre-empted the next two Sundays due to Rio.
Face the Nation finished No. 2 in total viewers and No. 3 in the news demo. FTN had a tough week, down 12 percent in total viewers and down 17 percent in the news demo compared to the same Sunday in 2015. One reason could be that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders were all interviewed on the program this same Sunday in 2015.
This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished No. 2 in the demo and No. 3 in total viewers. The program appears to be down from last year in the news demo, including -17 percent this past Sunday from the same Sunday in 2015. A case can be made that going up against the Olympics, which has competitions televised on multiple NBCU networks, makes life difficult. The program fell 1 percent in total viewers, year-over-year, but is currently drawing its largest overall audience in 17 years.
Fox News Sunday had a nice week relative to last year. The program was up 7 percent in total viewers and up 6 percent in the news demo compared to August 9, 2015. If we combine the original FOX telecast with the 3 cable replays on Fox News, FNS delivered 4.1 million total viewers and 853,000 A25-54 on Sunday, August 7.
The numbers for August 7, 2016:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet The Press | 3.300 M | 1.163 M |
| CBS | Face The Nation | 3.140 M | 682,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.098 M | 882,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.472 M | 407,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto | n/a | n/a |