On Sunday, May 24, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd took back the title of most-watched Sunday show.
Not only did MTP return to No. 1 in Total Viewers (3.36 million viewers), beating ABC by +15% and CBS by +3%, but the broadcast continued to win the Sunday show race in the key A25-54 demo (765,000), beating ABC by +19% and CBS by +11. A relatively commanding win in the demo, a category it has won on 13 consecutive Sundays.
An additional 877,000 total viewers and 138,000 A25-54 demo viewers watched the Sunday program through re-airs on NBC and MSNBC.
NBC decided to retitle this past Sunday’s broadcast of Meet the Press due to the Memorial Day weekend, and these numbers do not count toward the overall season averages.
CBS’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan slipped to second place in Total Viewers (3.27 million) and remained No. 2 in the key demo (688,000).
Since the Covid-19 pandemic (March 16-May 17), FTN delivered its largest audience ever dating to the 1987-1988 season and the largest audience in Adults 24-54 since the 2008-2009 comparable periods.
ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos remained in third place this past week, though the broadcast gave CBS much more of a run for its money than in recent weeks. The broadcast averaged 2.9 million total viewers and 645,000 demo viewers on May 24, which is up from the prior week.
Similar to NBC, ABC decided to retitle the May 24 edition of This Week due to the Memorial Day weekend, and these numbers will not count toward the season averages.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace drew 1.455 million Total Viewers and 419,000 demo viewers on the Fox network. The cable replays hauled in a combined 2.78 million Total Viewers and 411,000 demo viewers. Altogether, that’s roughly 4.23 million Total Viewers and 830,000 demo viewers on May 24.
NBC and CBS lost viewers in multiple measurements from the prior Sunday, which would make some sense considering the holiday weekend. However, as mentioned, ABC did see some week-to-week growth in the demo, as did Fox News Sunday.
Compared to the prior Sunday (May 17), NBC was -7% in Total Viewers and -8% in the demo. CBS’ week-to-week drop was even steeper, -15% in Total Viewers and -11% in the demo. ABC was flat in Total Viewers, but +9% in the demo week to week, while FNS was also flat in Total Viewers and +3% in the demo.
The May 24 numbers for the first-run broadcasts:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3,363,000 | 765,000 |
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3,269,000 | 688,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 2,920,000 | 645,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1,455,000 | 419,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI (Total Viewers and Adults 25-54); Live + SD for 5/24/20, 5/17/20 and 5/26/19 or as dated. Most Current: 2019-2020 Season (9/23/19 – 5/24/20) and 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/19 – 5/26/19). Averages based on regular telecasts.