The crazier the 2016 election season gets, the more the Sunday morning public affairs programs benefit. CBS’ Face the Nation and NBC’s Meet the Press won total viewers and adults 25-54, respectively. ABC’s This Week was up from the previous Sunday edition (March 13, 2016), both in total viewers and adults 25-54.
The March 20 edition of FTN delivered 3.85 million total viewers, a +29 percent improvement from the comparable episode in 2015 (3.85 mil versus 3.0 mil). That said, the program was down -3 percent in total viewers from last week’s episode.
Meet the Press finished second in total viewers (3.83 million), and grabbed over 1.1 million viewers in the 25-54 demo, marking the fourth consecutive week that the program has finished #1 in that category. The episode was up year-over-year in the 25-54 demo (+41 percent), but down -5 percent from the previous week.
Despite a third place finish, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos was up +19 percent in total viewers and +13 percent in the 25-54 demo versus the March 13, 2016 edition. The program was up +24 percent in total viewers year-over-year, but actually down in adults 25-54 (-6 percent).
Fox News Sunday on Broadcast brought in 1.6 million total viewers, a +10 percent improvement year-over-year. The replays on Fox News averaged a combined 2,694,000 total viewers and 568,000 adults 25-54 for the 2PM/ET, 6PM/ET and 2AM/ET replays. Altogether, the program averaged 4.29 million total viewers, 1 million of whom were adults 25-54 on 3/20/16.
*Note: Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 57.83% of the country.
SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2016:
| Program | Network | Duration (minutes) | Total Viewers | Adults 25-54 |
| MEET THE PRESS | NBC | 45 | 3.83 M | 1.14 M |
| FACE THE NATION | CBS | 30 | 3.85 M | 983,000 |
| THIS WEEK | ABC | 40 | 3.69 M | 930,000 |
| FOX NEWS SUNDAY | FOX | 60 | 1.59 M | 443,000 |
| AL PUNTO | UNI | 646,000 | 271,000 |