NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was the top-rated Sunday public affairs program in both total viewers and the key A25-54 demo on December 20. Todd interviewed presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) along with Sunday exclusives with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and John Podesta, chairman of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished second in both categories, while CBS’ Face the Nation with John Dickerson third in both viewers and the demo. MTP has now topped CBS for four out of the last six weeks and ABC for 21 out of the last 22 weeks in total viewers.
MTP is up + 33 percent in viewers and +21 percent in the demo compared to the same week last year, while This Week is up +10 percent in viewers and down -7 percent in the demo. FTN is down -9 percent in viewers and down -23 percent in the demo.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is down -2 percent in viewers and up +5 percent in the demo. FNS combined with cable replays for 3.2 million viewers. Replays on FNC averaged a combined 1.92 million total viewers and 287,000 in the demo.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 57.4 percent of the country.
The numbers for December 20:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.27 M | 771,000 |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3.62 M | 954,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.31 M | 870,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.35 M | 404,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto* |
*Al Punto numbers will be added as they become available