Sunday Show Ratings: Jan. 6

By A.J. Katz 

As has been true consistently all season, NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was the No. 1 Sunday politics program last week, averaging 3.76 million viewers and 941,000 A25-54 viewers nationally.

MTP marked its 7th consecutive week at No. 1, delivering +25 percent more total viewers than ABC, and +7 percent more total viewers than CBS, +34 percent more A25-54 viewers than ABC and +24 percent A25-54 viewers than CBS, according to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.

MTP’s total viewership of 3.76 million viewers is the largest since the Pyeongchang Olympics (February 18, 2018).

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However, the broadcast was down by -12 percent in total viewers and -19 percent in A25-54 viewers vs. the comparable Sunday broadcast in 2018 (Jan. 7).

Despite finishing No. 2 in the A25-54 demo, the Jan. 6 edition of Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan managed to post year-over-year audience growth in that coveted demographic (+4 percent). The CBS public affairs show finished No. 2 in total viewers, but was -5 percent vs. what it delivered in total audience during the same Sunday last year.

ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos finished in third and was significantly down year-over-year, -13 percent in total viewers and -28 percent in A25-54 viewers.

Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace on Fox Broadcasting was -9 percent in total viewers and -17 percent in A25-54 viewers vs. the comparable Sunday in 2018. The trio of cable replays delivered 1.82 million viewers and 274,000 demo viewers. Combined with the first-run telecast, that’s 3.3 million total viewers and 729,000 demo viewers tuning into FNS on Jan. 6. Sunday’s edition of Fox News Sunday was pre-empted in 9 markets: LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland, Sacramento, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Vegas.

The numbers for January 6, 2019:

Network Program Total Viewers A25-54
NBC Meet the Press  3,755,000 941,000
CBS Face the Nation (1/2 hr) 3,503,000 757,000
ABC This Week 3,011,000 703,000
FOX Fox News Sunday 1,476,000 455,000

 Source: Nielsen Live-Plus-Same-Day data

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