If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press…from New Hampshire.
NBC’s Sunday politics program was once again No. 1 in the ratings department, averaging 3.3 million total viewers and 735,000 A25-54 demo viewers on Feb. 9.
The No. 1 Sunday of the broadcast season to-date, MTP topped ABC’s This Week by 9% and CBS’ Face the Nation by +17% in average total audience. MTP also out-performed its competition in the A25-54 demo, defeating ABC by +6% and CBS by +42%.
An additional 761,000 total viewers and 154,000 A25-54 viewers watched the Sunday program through rebroadcasts on NBC and MSNBC.
Sunday’s broadcast featured interviews with early frontrunners Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos averaged 3 million Total Viewers and 694,000 Adults 25-54, out-performing CBS’ Face the Nation by its largest Total Viewer lead in nearly 2 years and biggest Adults 25-54 advantage (+177,000) in over 7 months – since April 15, 2018 and June 23, 2019, respectively.
On Feb. 9, This Week drew its 2nd-most-watched telecast of the season, while hitting a 12-week high in the key adult news demo – since Nov. 17 of last year.
The aforementioned Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan didn’t perform as well this past Sunday, at least not by its standards, and finished ranked No. 3 behind NBC and ABC in the relevant measurements.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace averaged 1.4 million total viewers and 408,000 demo viewers this past week on Fox. The trio of replays on cable delivered 3 million total viewers and 518,000 demo viewers. Altogether, that’s arouns 4.4 million total viewers and 926,000 demo viewers.
With the exception of Fox News Sunday, ratings for the Sunday shows were poor relative to the year-ago week. Top-rated Meet the Press was -13% in Total Viewers and -21% in Adults 25-54 from last year. Face the Nation struggled even more, -16% in Total Viewers and -25% in demo viewers. This Week’s losses were a bit less extreme, -5% in Total Viewers and -7% in Adults 25-54.
And as mentioned, Fox News Sunday was up from last year, +6% in Total Viewers and +4% in Adults 25-54.
The Nielsen numbers for Feb. 9 2020:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3,293,000 | 735,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3,027,000 | 694,000 |
| CBS | Face the Nation (1/2 hr) | 2,803,000 | 517,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1,415,000 | 408,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI (Total Viewers and Adults 25-54); Live + SD for 2/9/20, and 2/10/19 or as dated. Most Current: 2019 -2020 Season (9/23/19 – 2/9/20) and 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/19 – 2/10/19). Averages based on regular telecasts.