CBS takes top three spots in TV ratings, led by ’60 Minutes’

“60 Minutes” was the highest-rated prime-time program for the third consecutive week following the conclusion of NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, averaging 8 million viewers to lead a sweep of CBS programs in the top three.

“FBI” finished second, averaging 7.751 million and “NCIS” third, averaging 7.461 million, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.

The other two prime-time programs between March 7 and Sunday to top 7 million viewers were NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” fourth for the week, averaging 7.137 million viewers, and “Chicago Med,” which precedes it, fifth for the week, averaging 7.054 million.

“Chicago P.D.” which follows “Chicago Fire,” was the top-ranked program beginning at 10 p.m. for the third time in the season and first since the week of Oct. 25-31, averaging 6.383 million viewers, ninth for the week.

“Young Sheldon,” on CBS was the most popular comedy for the 23rd consecutive week, averaging 6.79 million viewers, seventh for the week. The CBS crime drama “FBI: International” was the top-rated first-season program for the third time in four weeks and ninth time in the 25-week-old 2021-22 prime-time television season, averaging 5.958 million viewers, 12th for the week.

“The Thing About Pam” drew the larger audience among the week’s two premieres on the five major broadcast networks, averaging 2.862 million viewers, 54th for the week and seventh among programs beginning at 10 p. m. The NBC true crime miniseries retained 67.5% of the audience of 4.243 million for “This Is Us,” which preceded it and was 26th for the week.

The premiere of the Fox competition series “Domino Masters” averaged 1.681 million viewers, 70th among the week’s broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available. “Domino Masters” retained 40.5% of the audience of 4.15 million for the season premiere of “The Masked Singer,” which preceded it and was 29th for the week.

The order of finish among the major English-language broadcast was unchanged from the previous two weeks.

CBS had five of the week’s seven ratings leaders to win the network battle for the ninth time in the season, averaging 4.94 million viewers. ABC was second, averaging 3.47 million viewers, and NBC third, averaging 2.94 million.

Fox averaged 2.07 million viewers. The CW averaged 620,000.

“American Idol” was ABC’s biggest draw for the third time in the three weeks it has aired this season, finishing eighth, averaging a season-high 6.636 million viewers. The previous high was 6.573 million viewers, one week earlier.

The procedural drama “9-1-1: Lone Star” was Fox’s ratings leader for the third consecutive week and fifth time in six weeks, averaging 5.163 million viewers, 17th overall.

The Critics Choice Awards ceremony had the CW’s biggest audience, averaging 1.09 million viewers, 119th among broadcast programs.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of ”60 Minutes” and 13 CBS entertainment programs; the three elements of NBC’s Chicago franchise — “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”; two ABC alternative programs, “American Idol” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; and Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star.”

The Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” drew each of last week’s three largest prime-time cable audiences and five of the top six, topped by the Tuesday episode, which averaged 4.371 million viewers, 24th overall.

Fox News Channel had each of the top nine prime-time cable programs and 13 of the top 14, putting it at the top of the cable network rankings for the eighth consecutive week, averaging 2.792 million viewers.

ESPN was second, averaging 1.404 million. MSNBC finished third for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 1.187 million. CNN was fourth, averaging 1.123 million viewers after back-to-back second-place finishes.

The cable top 20 consisted of 15 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle”; the Fox News Channel Sunday night political talk show, “Life, Liberty and Levin”; ESPN’s coverage of Virginia Tech’s 82-67 victory over Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game on Saturday; TNT’s coverage of the Brooklyn Nets’ 129-100 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Thursday; History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; and the Hallmark Channel period drama “When Calls the Heart.”

The eight-episode thriller “Pieces of Her” was the most-streamed program on Netflix with 95.72 million hours watched in its first full week of release, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday. Viewership was up 78.3% from the 53.68 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days and finished third.

The science fiction action film “The Adam Project” was second overall and first among films with 92.43 million hours watched in its first three days of release.

The 2001 DreamWorks Animation comedy “Shrek” was the top-ranked theatrical film on Netflix with 10.38 million hours watched.