Sunday Show Ratings: Feb. 4

By A.J. Katz 

Meet the Press With Chuck Todd had a Super Sunday in the ratings department. The program won the Sunday show ratings race across the board for the second consecutive Sunday. Feb. 4 was a significant date for NBC, as the network televised Super Bowl LII that evening from Minneapolis.

The NBC Sunday public affairs show delivered exclusive interviews with former White House CoS Reince Priebus, and HBO Real Sports host Bryant Gumbel.

MTP, which finished No. 1 in all relevant measurements, managed to hold steady in total viewers versus the comparable Sunday in 2017, but was -3 percent in the demo on Super Bowl Sunday. Todd hosted a star-studded trio of guests on Super Bowl Sunday 2017:  Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. This could explain the year-over-year decline in A25-54 viewers.

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CBS’s Face the Nation, was is featuring a rotating cast of moderators for the time being, finished No. 2 in the Sunday show race in all relevant measurements.

The Feb. 4 broadcast, moderated by CBS News White House and senior foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan, opened with an exclusive interview with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).

FTN was +2 percent in total viewers, but -6 percent in the news demo versus the same Sunday in 2017.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos finished No. 3 both in total viewers and in the key A25-54 category. The program was -9 percent in total viewers, and -9 percent in the demo versus last year.

Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace posted audience declines from last year, -8 percent in total viewers and -14 percent in the demo from last year. The audience declines aren’t a huge surprise considering the network aired the Super Bowl on FOX later that day, and there were more eyeballs on the network than usual.

There were only two FNS repeats on Feb. 4 (2 p.m. and 2 a.m.), as opposed to the usual three, and they combined for 1.96 million total viewers, and 417,000 demo viewers. Combined with the FOX broadcast, FNS posted 3.43 million total viewers and 874,000 demo viewers on Feb. 4.

Editor’s note: Face the Nation’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 64.4 percent of the CBS affiliates.

The numbers for February 4:

Network Program Total Viewers A25-54
NBC Meet the Press 4.120 M 1.197 M
CBS Face the Nation (1/2 hr) 3.925 M 857,000
ABC This Week 2.922 M 790,000
FOX Fox News Sunday 1.473 M 457,000
UNI Al Punto n/a n/a

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