Bob Schieffer went out on top. Well, in total viewers at least.
In the legendary CBS host’s final episode, Face the Nation was the top-rated Sunday public affairs program in total viewers on May 31. However, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos won the key demo while beating Schieffer’s farewell by roughly 94,000 A25-54 viewers.
NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd finished third in both categories after being preempted due to NBC’s coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix last week. Compared to the same week last year, Face the Nation was up significantly, +53 percent in viewers and +26 percent in the demo.
This Week was up +3 percent in viewers and +12 percent in the demo, while Meet the Press was up +11 percent in viewers and down slightly in the demo.
Fox News Sunday was up +12 percent in viewers and up +16 percent in the demo, while combining with cable replays for 2.96 million viewers. Replays on FNC averaged a combined 1.7 million total viewers and 246,000 in the demo.
Face the Nation is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 76.3% of the country.
The numbers for May 31:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBS |
Face the Nation | 3.94M | 802,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 2.81M | 896,000 |
| NBC | Meet the Press | 2.47M | 769,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.26M | 361,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto |
Al Punto numbers will be provided when they become available