Films nab wins for TV, streaming ratings

“Red Notice” became the most-streamed English-language film ever on the Netflix streaming service. Viewers spent 328.8 million hours watching the action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot between Nov. 22 and Sunday.

“Red Notice” has been the top English-language film three times in the three weeks it has streamed on Netflix. “Bruised” was second for the week, with viewers spending 47.7 million hours watching the Halle Berry-starring and directed mixed martial arts film in its first five days of release.

The seven-episode series “True Story,” and the 10-episode science fiction series “Cowboy Bebop” were the top two shows on Netflix for the week.

The Thanksgiving night NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints drew the fifth-largest audience in the 10-week-old 2021-22 prime-time television season.

Buffalo’s 31-6 victory averaged 19.378 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Thursday.

That total was behind the New England Patriots-Tampa Bay Buccaneers “Sunday Night Football” game Oct. 3 (26.747 million), the Arizona Cardinals-Green Bay Packers “Thursday Night Football” game on Oct. 28 (20.264 million), and the Sept. 26 “Sunday Night Football” game between Green Bay and the San Francisco 49ers (19.693 million).

The Paramount Network’s neo-Western “Yellowstone” was the top rated non-sports program for the second time in four weeks, averaging 7.89 million viewers, eighth overall.

A rerun of “Young Sheldon” was the highest rated comedy for the eighth consecutive week, averaging 6.568 million viewers, third among non-NFL programs and 10th overall.

The NBC epic adventure “La Brea” lead ratings of all new series, averaging 4.332 million viewers, 22nd overall. The fall finale of the ABC medical drama “The Good Doctor” drew the biggest audience of programs beginning at 10 p.m., averaging 4.22 million viewers, 23rd for the week and 14th among non-sports programs.

The combination of the Bills-Saints game and “Sunday Night Football” put NBC at the top of the network rankings for the fifth time in the season, averaging 6.84 million viewers between Nov. 22 and Sunday.

CBS finished second, averaging 4.8 million, followed by Fox, which averaged 3.4 million, and ABC, which averaged 3.15 million. The CW averaged 540,000.

NBC’s biggest audiences for non-NFL programs were the Tuesday and Monday editions of “The Voice,” 13th and 14th overall and fifth and sixth among non-NFL programs, averaging 6.341 million and 6.328 million.

The news magazine “60 Minutes” was top ranked non-NFL program on CBS, averaging 7.558 million viewers, ninth for the week and second among non-NFL programs.

Saturday’s Oklahoma-Oklahoma State “Saturday Night Football” game was the highest ranked program on ABC, 11th for the week, averaging 6.486 million viewers. The season finale of “Dancing With the Stars,” was it’s to rated non-sports program, 16th for the week and eighth among non-sports programs, averaging 5.643 million viewers.

Fox’s largest audience for non-NFL program was “The Simpsons,” which averaged 3.61 million viewers .

The CW’s “The Waltons’ Homecoming” averaged 969,000 viewers, the network’s biggest audience for the week. The two-hour movie based on the 1971 made-for-television movie “The Homecoming,” which spawned the 1972-81 CBS Depression-era drama “The Waltons.”

The 20 most watched prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; two NFL postgame shows; ABC’s coverage of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State college football game; “Yellowstone”; “60 Minutes”; five CBS entertainment programs; two NBC entertainment programs; “Dancing with the Stars” and Tucker Carlson’s interview with Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Antioch, Ill., who was found not guilty of all charges related to the incident where he fatally shot two men and wounded another during protests in Kenosha, Wis.

“Monday Night Football” was the top ranked cable program for the 11th time in 11 2021 regular-season broadcasts, with Tampa Bay’s 30-10 victory over the New York Giants averaging 10.345 million viewers, sixth for the week.

ESPN was led cable networks for the third time in four weeks, averaging 2.825 million viewers. Fox News Channel dropped one spot to second, averaging 2.106 million. Hallmark Channel was third for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.005 million viewers.

The top 20 cable programs consisted of “Monday Night Football” and its 13-minute pregame show; ESPN’s coverage of the Duke-Gonzaga men’s college basketball game and North Carolina-North Carolina State college football game; nine Fox News Channel political talk shows — four broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” three of “Hannity” and two of “The Ingraham Angle” — four Hallmark Channel “Countdown to Christmas” movies; “Yellowstone”; the Tuesday edition of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; and History’s long-running chronicle of the quest to solve the more than two-century-old treasure mystery on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island.”