After a lengthy run atop the Sunday show heap, Meet the Press’ “across-the-board” dominance came to an end this past Sunday.
CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson was the most-watched Sunday show on February 26, and grew +3 percent in total audience versus the same Sunday last year. That said, FTN finished No. 3 in the key news demo, experiencing a -15 percent year-over-year drop in the process.
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd finished a close 2nd in total audience, but maintained the No. 1 spot among viewers 25-54. MTP experienced a rare year-over-year decline, -4 percent in total viewers and -2 percent in the key news demo. An additional 1.5 million total viewers and 402,000 A25-54 viewers watched the program through rebroadcasts on MSNBC.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos came in 3rd in total viewers, but 2nd in the key A25-54 demo. The episode was -1 percent in total viewers and -10 percent in the demo relative to last year. That said, the program did manage a 4-week viewership high and is averaging its largest overall audience in 18 years.
Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace on FOX posted a -2 percent total audience decline from the same Sunday in 2016, but rose +1 percent in the news demo. The program’s trio of cable replays delivered 2.73 million total viewers and 561,000 A25-54 viewers at 2 p.m., 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET. Altogether FNS delivered 4.29 million total viewers and 1.02 million from the demo.
Editor’s note: Face the Nation’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 80.6 percent of the CBS affiliates.
The numbers for February 26:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3.646M | 1.128M |
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.694M | 813,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.316M | 948,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.560M | 461,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto | 876,000 | 399,000 |
Meet the Press won February 2017 sweeps in all relevant categories. This represents MTP’s first February sweep across-the-board win since 2014. The program also posted its largest February sweep audience in 9 years (2008).
This Week ranked No. 3 in total viewers during February 2017 sweeps, but beat Face the Nation in the key news demo by +873,000 viewers, its largest margin of victory in the demo since February 2000.
The numbers for February 2017 Sweeps:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 4.087M | 1.246M |
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.740M | 873,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.357M | 909,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.682M | 507,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto | *na | *na |
*Al Punto ratings will be added when made available.