Donald Trump kicked off 2016 with another huge ratings performance.
CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson as the top-rated Sunday public affairs program in both total viewers and the key A25-54 demo on January 3 when Dickerson interviewed GOP front runner Trump. Face the Nation had its largest audience since Sept. 16, 2001 and it’s best rating among the demo since 2013. FTN is up +25 percent in viewers and up +45 percent in the demo compared to the same week last year.
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was second in both categories, while ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished third in both viewers and the demo. Meet the Press is up + 13 percent in viewers and +11 percent in the demo, while This Week is up +6 percent in viewers and down -15 percent in the demo.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace combined with cable replays for 3.44 million viewers. Replays on FNC averaged a combined 1.88 million total viewers and 323,000 in the demo. MTP delivered an additional 1.47 million total viewers and 600,000 demo viewers with replays on the NBC and MSNBC.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 57.4 percent of the country.
The numbers for January 3:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation | 4.63 M | 1.27 M |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3.42 M | 959,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.30 M | 905,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.56 M | 476,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto* |
*Al Punto numbers will be added as they become available