Meet the Press With Chuck Todd is dominating the Sunday public affairs landscape in 2018, and with another across the board victory on Feb. 18, the longest-running show on TV is now No. 1 across all relevant categories at this point in the season for the first time since 2010-2011.
But despite buzz surrounding the aftermath of the horrific Florida high school shooting, Meet the Press, along with its Sunday political program competition, lost viewers compared to the same week in 2017.
MTP was -2 percent in total viewers and -6 percent among adults 25-54 vs. Feb. 19, 2017.
CBS’s Face the Nation posted a double digit year-over-year decline among adults 25-54 this past Sunday (-25 percent), which put the program in third in the ad-friendly demographic. The program was also -7 percent in total viewers, still good enough for second place ahead of ABC.
Margaret Brennan was named the new permanent Face the Nation moderator yesterday, and will step into the new role beginning Sunday, Feb. 25. Perhaps having a permanent moderator, as opposed to a rotation of fill-ins, will bring viewers back to the program on a more consistent basis.
ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos was -6 percent in total viewers, and -8 percent in the key demo versus the comparable Sunday in 2017.
Hosted by Chris Wallace, Fox News Sunday on FOX was -16 percent in total viewers, and -5 percent in total viewers. The program’s trio of cable replays delivered 2.58 million total viewers, and 503,000 demo viewers. Altogether, the Feb. 18 edition of FNS delivered 4.14 million total viewers and 1 million from the demo.
The numbers for Feb. 18:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 4.089M | 1.249M |
| CBS | Face the Nation (1/2 hr) | 3.442M | 675,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.103M | 822,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.557M | 498,000 |