NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was the most-watched Sunday show across the board this past Sunday, Feb. 17, marking its second straight week at No. 1, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data.
The NBC broadcast drew 3.8 million total viewers, +23 percent (+708,000) more than ABC’s This Week and +13 percent (+446,000) more than CBS’ Face the Nation.
This marks the broadcast’s 35th straight win over ABC in total viewers and 12th win over CBS out of the last 13 broadcasts.
MTP also won in the demo most valued by news advertisers for its 55th straight broadcast, topping both ABC and CBS by double-digits. This is the broadcast’s best streak in over 18 years (since October 15, 2000).
However, compared to the same Sunday last year (which was an Olympics Sunday), MTP was -6 percent in total viewers, and -22 percent in A25-54 viewers.
An additional 1.1 million total viewers and 262,000 A25-54 viewers watched through rebroadcasts on NBC and MSNBC.
Season-to-date, MTP is the No.1 Sunday show across the board.
CBS’ Face the Nation moderated by Margaret Brennan ranked No. 2 across the board. The program was -2 percent in total viewers, but +13 percent in A25-54 viewers vs. the comparable Sunday last year, when, as mentioned, MTP got an A25-54 audience lift thanks to the Olympics.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished No.3 across the board this past Sunday. For the 4th time in the last 5 weeks, the show improved on the year-over Sunday in total viewers (+1 percent). However, the broadcast was -10 percent in A25-54 viewers.
This past weekend’s broadcast of Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on Fox Broadcasting included an exclusive interview with radio talk show host and conservative political radio commentator Rush Limbaugh. The broadcast apparently skewed older than usual. It was up year-over-year in total viewers (+8 percent), but down -11 percent in A25-54 viewers. That’s a quite a discrepancy.
The cable replays delivered a combined 2.73 million total viewers and 505,000 A25-54 demo viewers. Combined with the first-run broadcast, that’s 4.41 million total viewers and 946,000 A25-54 viewers on Feb. 17.
The numbers for Feb. 17:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 3,832,000 | 979,000 |
| CBS | Face the Nation (1/2 hr) | 3,385,000 | 762,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3,123,000 | 740,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1,686,000 | 441,000 |