Each of the Sunday public affairs shows on broadcast delivered year-over-year growth, both in total viewers and in the ever-important A25-54 demographic.
CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson was once again the most-watched public affairs show of the day, and +26 percent in total viewers from the same Sunday last year (Dec. 20, 2015). The program also delivered improvement in the news demo (+9 percent), finishing No. 2 in the category ahead of ABC. The broadcast opened with an interview with President-elect Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was once again No. 1 among A25-54, and grew +6 percent in the demo relative to the same week last year. The episode was also +1 percent in total viewers. MTP continues to reign supreme in the D.C. market, and finished No. 1 in total viewers for the 79th straight broadcast. An additional 697,000 total viewers and 173,000 A25-54 viewers watched re-broadcasts of the episode on MSNBC.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos grew +2 percent in total viewers and +5 percent in the key news demo relative to Dec. 20, 2015. Season to date, This Week is improving in both total viewers (+7 percent) and A25-54 (+2 percent) versus the same point last season. This Week is drawing its strongest numbers in 8 years – since the ’08-’09 season.
Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace delivered the most year-over-year growth of the Sunday shows: +33 percent in total viewers and +36 percent in A25-54. The trio of cable replays delivered a combined 2.78 million viewers and 543,000 A25-54 viewers at 2 p.m, 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET. Combining the original telecast with the cable replays, the Dec. 18 episode hauled 4.58 million total viewers and 1.09 million from the demo.
Al Punto delivered year-over-year improvements in total viewers (+13 percent) and in the key A25-54 demo (+8 percent) this past Sunday. The program continues to out-perform Fox News Sunday this broadcast season to-date among millennials (140,000 vs. 128,000). That’s a solid +9 percent gap.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 58.7 percent of the country.
The numbers for December 18:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation | 4.13 M | 950,000 |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3.67 M | 1.01 M |
| ABC | This Week | 3.39 M | 911,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.80 M | 550,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto | 742,000 | 321,000 |