After a week off, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd returns to No. 1.
The NBC Sunday public affairs show was preempted last week due to NBC Sports’ broadcast of the Open Championship final round, but with its across-the-board win on July 29, it has defeated the competition across the board for 8 consecutive months, and exclusively in the A25-54 demo for 10 consecutive months.
Yet despite all of those accolades, MTP was -7 percent in total viewers and -21 percent among adults 25-54 vs. the comparable Sunday in 2017 (July 30). As you’ll see, all of the Sunday politics show are losing a lot of traction among younger news viewers this year compared to last.
Anchored by Martha Raddatz on July 29, ABC’s This Week finished No. 2 both among total viewers and in the key A25-54 demo. The ABC public affairs program beat rival CBS Face the Nation in both total viewers (+161,000) and Adults 25-54 (+184,000), posting its largest news demo lead over CBS in 3 months – since 4/22/18. It’s also beating FTN in the demo for the 3rd season in a row.
That said, the broadcast posted year-over-year audience declines this past week of -2 percent in total viewers, and -19 percent among adults 25-54.
No nice way to put it: Face the Nation is struggling in 2018. The July 29th broadcast was particularly rough, -24 percent in total viewers, and -42 percent among adults 25-54 vs. the July 30, 2017 broadcast. FTN finished No. 3 across the board.
As was the case with FTN, Fox News Sunday had a rough week relative to last year as well. The broadcast was -17 percent in total viewers and -36 percent among adults 25-54 vs. July 30, 2017. The program’s trio of cable replays delivered nearly 2.3 million total viewers and 411,000 demo viewers. Combined with the FOX first-run broadcast, that’s 3.4 million total viewers and 695,000 demo viewers on July 29, 2018.
The numbers for July 29:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet The Press | 2,846,000 | 699,000 |
| ABC |
This Week | 2,633,000 | 637,000 |
| CBS | Face the Nation(1/2 hr) | 2,472,000 | 453,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1,136,000 | 284,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI (Total Viewers and Adults 25-54); Live + SD for 7/29/18, and 7/30/17 or as dated. Season-to-Date: Most Current: 2017-2018 Season (9/25/17 – 7/29/18) and 2016-2017 Season (9/19/16 – 7/30/18). Averages based on regular telecasts.