NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos split top honors on July 28.
The dominant Sunday public affairs show in 2019, MTP delivered the largest total audience this past week, beating This Week by +2% (+40,000), CBS Face the Nation by +4% (+104,000), and Fox News Sunday by +60% (+1,506,000).
An additional 850,000 total viewers and 182,000 A25-54 viewers watched the Sunday program through rebroadcasts on NBC and MSNBC.
ABC’s This Week was No. 1 among the advertiser-friendly A25-54 demo, and averaged +64,000 more viewers than CBS’ Face the Nation, its largest advantage in one year – since 7/29/18. The program posted slight year-over-year growth in total audience.
Despite finishing third in the A25-54 demo, Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan posted double digit year-over-year growth in the measurement. FTN finished No. 2 in total viewers this past week. However, the program was retitled last Sunday, which means the numbers shown below won’t count towards the program’s averages.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace delivered one million total viewers and 214,000 A25-54 viewers on the Fox network. The trio of cable replays on FNC delivered a combined 2.4 million viewers and 444,000 A25-54 viewers. Altogether, that’s 3.4 million total viewers and 658,000 A25-54 viewers on July 28.
Compared with the same Sunday in 2018, NBC was -11% in total viewers, CBS was -2%, ABC was +1%, and Fox was -10%. In the A25-54 demo, NBC was -27%, ABC was -9%, CBS was +10%, and Fox was -25%.
The Nielsen viewership numbers for July 28:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC |
Meet the Press | 2,530,000 | 508,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 2,490,000 | 582,000 |
| CBS | Face the Nation (1/2 hr) | 2,426,000 | 500,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1,024,000 | 214,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI (Total Viewers and Adults 25-54); Live + SD for 7/28/19, 7/21/19 and 7/29/18 or as dated. Season to date: Most Current: 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/18 – 7/28/19) and 2017-2018 Season (9/25/17 – 7/29/18). Averages based on regular telecasts.