Sunday Show Ratings: Jan. 20

NBC’s Meet the Press was the No. 1 Sunday public affairs show for the 9th consecutive Sunday, and attracted its largest total audience since Jan. 7, 2018.

Moderated by Chuck Todd, MTP was the only Sunday show to deliver more than four million total viewers (4.21 million), topping both ABC and CBS by double-digits.

Compared to the same Sunday broadcast last year, MTP was +17 percent in total viewers, and +4 percent in A25-54 viewers. That amount of year-over-year audience growth is rare.

Sunday’s broadcast featured an interview with Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Trump, who said for the first time that conversations and plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow remained an “active proposal” and “went on throughout 2016.” Todd also conducted exclusive interviews with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

CBS’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan finished No. 2 across the board, and posted +2 percent audience growth vs. the comparable Sunday in 2018…which happened to be John Dickerson‘s final broadcast as Face the Nation moderator.

ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished in third place. The telecast was +6 percent in total viewers, but -15 percent in A25-54 viewers vs. the comparable one last year.

Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace on Fox Broadcasting was -1 percent in total viewers and -12 percent in adults 25-54 vs. the comparable Sunday broadcast last year. The episode’s trio of cable replays delivered 2.09 million total viewers and 409,000 A25-54 viewers. Combined with the first-run telecast, that’s a total of 3.66 million total viewers and 859,000 A25-54 viewers on Jan. 20.

The telecast originated from WTTG Fox 5 because of an electrical fire at Fox News’ DC bureau, and featured an interview with Vice President Pence.

It also aired an hour earlier than normal in Kansas City due to expanded KC Chiefs pre-game show and severe weather coverage.

The numbers for January 20:

Source: Nielsen live-plus-same-day data