CBS leads Holy Week rankings, with its ’60 Minutes’ as No. 1 show

With each of the four major broadcast networks continuing their Holy Week practice of running more reruns than usual, “60 Minutes” was the highest rated prime-time program for the third time in seven weeks.

The CBS newsmagazine averaged 9.681 million viewers for an episode that included two stories related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

Over the last seven weeks“60 Minutes” has finished second twice, third once and fourth once.

CBS has had the top rated prime-time program for seven consecutive weeks — three episodes each of “60 Minutes” and “NCIS” and a Democratic presidential debate.

NBC had both of the other prime-time programs between April 6 and Sunday to average more than 9 million viewers: “The Voice,” which averaged 9.597 million viewers, and “Chicago Med,” which averaged 9.05 million.

“Chicago Fire,” which followed “Chicago Med,” was fourth for the week, averaging 8.969 million viewers. “Chicago PD,” which followed “Chicago Fire,” was the week’s top ranked 10 p.m. program, averaging 7.671 million viewers, eighth for the week.

CBS averaged 5.83 million viewers to finish first in the network race for the ninth consecutive week and the 14th time in the 29-week-old 2019-20 prime-time television season, despite airing reruns of its entire Tuesday lineup, including “NCIS,” television’s most popular scripted program, along with the high-ranking comedy “Young Sheldon” and perennial 10 p.m. Friday time slot winner “Blue Bloods.”

ABC and NBC tied for second, both averaging 4.57 million viewers. Fox was fourth among the broadcast networks for the 10th time in the 10 weeks following its Super Bowl LIV telecast, averaging 2.57 million viewers for its 15 hours of prime-time programming.

CBS, ABC and NBC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.

The “NCIS” rerun averaged 7.862 million viewers and was ranked sixth overall.

ABC’s top program was the action drama “Station 19,” which drew its largest audience among its 39 episodes over three seasons, 7.561 million viewers, ninth for the week.

ABC also got boosts from the series finale of “Modern Family,” which had its largest audience since Jan. 11, 2017: 7.37 million viewers. That made it 11th for the week. The first of a series of celebrity episodes of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” followed, averaging 6.206 million viewers, making it 21st for the week, third among 10 p.m. programs.

“The Masked Singer” led Fox’s lineup for the ninth time in the 10 weeks since its Super Bowl telecast, averaging 7.943 million viewers, fifth for the week.

Fox News Channel was first among cable network for the 12th consecutive week, averaging 3.461 million viewers.

Fox News Channel had each of the week’s 13 most-watched prime-time cable programs after having each of the top 15 the previous two weeks. Its most-watched program was the Monday edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which averaged 4.911 million viewers, 37th overall.

MSNBC was second among cable networks for the sixth time in eight weeks, averaging 1.939 million viewers. CNN averaged 1.824 million viewers to finish third, one week after finishing second.