A split decision for the Sunday public affairs shows on the first week of the shutdown: ABC’s “This Week” won in total viewers and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” hosted this week by Savannah Guthrie, won in the A25-54 demographic.
“This Week” drew its largest total audience in four years and its largest demo audience in one year (since 2/22/09 and 10/7/12, respectively).
Compared to the same week last year, only CBS’ “This Week” was up in both ratings measurements, growing +13% in total viewers and +14% in the A25-54 demographic. It was mixed for ABC (+13% in total viewers / -4% in the demo), NBC (-3% / +7%) and Univision (+15% / -7%). “Fox News Sunday” was down -16% in total viewers and -29% in A25-54 viewers.
Cable replays of “Fox News Sunday” averaged a combined 1,628,000 total viewers and 298,000 A25-54 viewers. Cable rebroadcasts of “Meet the Press” delivered an additional 1,065,000 total viewers and 466,000 A25-54 viewers.
“Face the Nation” is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 50% of the country.
The numbers for October 6:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABC |
“This Week” | 3.40M | 986K |
| CBS |
“Face the Nation” | 3.21M | 894K |
| NBC | “Meet the Press” | 2.96M | 998K |
| Fox | “Fox News Sunday” | 1.24K | 408K |
| Univision | “Al Punto” | 854K | 381K |