Sunday Show Ratings: Jan. 28

When it comes to the Sunday show ratings race, NBC’s Meet the Press is back in the driver’s seat.

The Chuck Todd-moderated program won the final Sunday of January 2018 (Jan. 28), both in total viewers and among adults 25-54. MTP topped ABC by +17 percent in total viewers and CBS by +5 percent in total viewers.

Additionally, Meet the Press won the month of January in the key A25-54 demo, outperforming ABC and CBS by double digits. That’s four consecutive monthly victories for MTP in the advertiser-preferred demo.

MTP was down year over year, which is not surprising considering the broadcast delivered its second-largest audience in eight years on the comparable Sunday in 2017.

CBS’s Face the Nation finished No. 2 in total viewers and No. 3 in the key news demo on Jan 28. No Sunday show saw more of a year-over-year decline than FTN.

CBS News’s chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes hosted the program. A permanent Face the Nation moderator has yet to be named.

If there’s ever a time for ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to become the second-most-watched Sunday show, now would be that time, with CBS News rotating Face the Nation moderators for the foreseeable future.

This Week finished No. 3  in total viewers (only by 5,000) and held strong at No. 2 among adults 25-54. The ABC Sunday show has now defeated its CBS rival in the demo for 12 of the past 15 Sundays.

Like its Sunday show competitors, Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace was down year over year. The original Fox broadcast delivered 1.45 million total viewers and 455,000 demo viewers. The trio of cable replays on Fox News delivered a combined 3.26 million total viewers and 724,000 demo viewers. Altogther, the Jan. 28 edition of FNS delivered 4.71 million total viewers and 1.18 million demo viewers.

*Editor’s note: Face the Nation’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 59.8 percent of the CBS affiliates.

The numbers for Jan. 28: