Eschewing reruns, CBS has a strong week with scripted shows

NEW YORK, N.Y. – If you watched a scripted comedy or drama on television during the past week, there’s a very good chance you were watching CBS.

The network aired the 15 most-watched scripted shows in the Nielsen company’s weekly list, making for a lopsided win. CBS ran fresh episodes of many regular series while its rivals turned primarily to reruns and holiday specials.

“NCIS” was the most popular scripted show, as is often the case. “State of Affairs” on NBC had the top ranking for the non-CBS shows, Nielsen said.

Singer Michael Buble claimed holiday bragging rights for the week. His “Christmas in New York” special was seen by 7.5 million viewers, beating the 6.3 million who tuned in to the “Charlie Brown Christmas” on ABC.

The crowning of a new champion on “The Voice” landed that show in the top 10 for both Monday and Tuesday night’s episodes. NBC’s “Sing Off” on Wednesday had less than half of “The Voice” audience.

CBS averaged 10.2 million viewers for the week in prime-time. NBC had 7.9 million, ABC had 4.4 million, Fox had 2.8 million, Univision had 2.4 million. ION Television had 1.5 million, and the CW and Telemundo both had 1.4 million.

ESPN was the week’s most-popular cable network with 3.3 million viewers. TBS had 1.871 million, USA had 1.867 million, Fox News Channel had 1.85 million and and the Disney Channel had 1.82 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was second with 8.5 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.3 million viewers.

For the week of Dec. 15-21, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Seattle at Arizona, NBC, 19.29 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 17.53 million; “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 14.14 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 13.18 million; “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 13.03 million; NFL Football: San Diego at San Francisco, 12.96 million; “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 12.88 million; “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 12.07 million; NFL Football: New Orleans at Chicago, ESPN, 11.07 million; “The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 10.61 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com