CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson was the top-rated Sunday public affairs program in both total viewers and the key A25-54 demo on December 13. NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd finished second in viewers and third in the demo.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished third in viewers and second in the demo. Despite finishing fourth in both categories, Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace showed the most growth compared to the same day last year.
FTN is up +17 percent in viewers and +14 percent in the demo. Dickerson interviewed Secretary of State John Kerry, John Kasich and spoke with CBS News Contributor Frank Luntz on results of his focus group with Donald Trump supporters.
MTP also delivered an additional 1.11 million total viewers and 466,000 in the demo with rebroadcasts on NBC and MSNBC. Chuck Todd had a Sunday exclusive with Marco Rubio and also interviewed Sec. Kerry. This Week also had Kerry in addition to a Sunday exclusive with Ben Carson. MTP is up + 15 percent compared to +16 percent for This Week.
Fox News Sunday aired a pre-taped interview with Trump, who is typically the king of Sunday mornings. According to Twitter, it doesn’t appear that the GOP front runner loved the experience:
I did interview with Chris Wallace of @FoxNews in order to be fair. He then puts on Rove, Lane and Will, three Trump bashers, to discuss.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2015
FNS combined with cable replays for 4.08 million viewers. Replays on FNC averaged a combined 2.36 million total viewers and 330,000 in the demo. FNS is up +35 percent in viwers and +42 percent in the demo, which is the most growth among Sunday public affairs programs.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 57.4 percent of the country.
The numbers for December 13:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.76 M | 896,000 |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3.18 M | 833,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 2.97 M | 869,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.72 M | 477,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto* |
*Al Punto numbers will be added as they become available