CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson was the top-rated Sunday public affairs program in total viewers on October 18. However, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos won the key A25-54 demo for the eighth-straight Sunday despite finishing third in viewers. This Week is up +10 percent in the demo compared to the same week last year.
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd finished second in both categories and has now beaten ABC’s This Week in total viewers for 13 straight weeks. Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace posted its highest-rated broadcast in more than six years thanks to an interview with Donald Trump. Fox News Sunday combined with cable replays for 3.71 million viewers. Replays on FNC averaged a combined 2.10 million total viewers and 289,000 in the demo.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 57.4% of the country.
The numbers for October 18:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.10M | 672,000 |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 2.87M | 768,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 2.81M | 849,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.62M | 471,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto | 528,000 | 233,000 |