TV Ratings for Feb. 27 - March 05

Three episodes of “The Voice” and the season premiere of “Little Big Shots” combined to sweep the top four spots in the weekly prime-time ratings to help NBC to its first victory since early January.

In a week when President Donald Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress disrupted Tuesday’s schedules, and CBS did not air original episodes of its five most-watched scripted series for the season, NBC averaged 7.26 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Feb. 27 and Sunday for its seventh victory in the 24-week-old season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.The victory was NBC’s first during the official season without an NFL telecast since the week of March 7-13, 2016.

CBS averaged 6.07 million viewers to finish second, followed among the broadcast networks by ABC, which averaged 3.18 million, and Fox, which averaged 2.43 million.

Trump’s speech averaged 47.741-million viewers across 11 broadcast and cable networks. The first speech to a joint session of Congress by then-President Barack Obama in 2009 averaged 52.373-million viewers.

The two-hour spring season premiere of “The Voice” Feb. 27 was the week’s most-watched program on a single channel, averaging 13.029-million viewers, the singing competition’s most-watched episode since March 8, 2016.

Hourlong episodes of “The Voice” Feb. 28 and March 2 were third and fourth for the week, averaging 11.346 million and 10.694 million.

The second-season premiere of the alternative comedy/variety series “Little Big Shots” was second for the week, averaging 11.718 million.

Both of NBC’s premieres won their time slots.

“Taken” was first in its 10-11 p.m. time slot Feb. 27 and 20th for the week, averaging 7.452-million viewers.

“Chicago Justice” won its 10-11 p.m. time slot Wednesday to conclude a three-hour “Chicago” crossover event and was 14th for the week, averaging 8.732-million viewers, the most for a drama premiere since the opening week of the season, outside of “24: Legacy” which aired after Fox’s coverage of Super Bowl LI.

The first episode of “Chicago Justice” from 9-10 p.m. Sunday was third in its regular time slot and 25th for the week, averaging 7.214 million viewers.

The week’s two other premieres on the four major broadcast network received a dismal response from the public.

ABC’s time-traveling drama “Time After Time” was fourth in its 9-11 p.m. Sunday time slot and 103rd for the week, averaging 2.539-million viewers.

Fox’s time-traveling comedy “Making History” was sixth in its 8:30-9 p.m. Sunday time slot and 134th for the week, averaging 2.17-million viewers.

Viewership for premieres are often unrepresentative of how the series will fare due to the heavy promotion they receive and because viewers initially interested in the concept may not return for future episodes.

The ABC’s miniseries on the LGBT rights movement “When We Rise” also received a lackluster response from viewers. Its four parts averaged 2.953 million, 2.018 million, 2.003 million and 2.069-million viewers, 87th, 144th, 151st and 152nd for the week.

NBC and CBS both aired 20 hours, 40 minutes of prime-time programming for ratings purposes, ABC 20 hours, 42 minutes and Fox 14 hours.

Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the seventh-consecutive week, averaging 3.381-million viewers. ESPN was second, averaging 1.746 million and HGTV 1.633 million to finish third after finishing second three times in the previous four weeks.

Fox News Channel’s viewership topped both ABC and Fox.

Fox News Channel’s viewership was bolstered because Trump’s speech to Congress was included in its weekly average. The speech was not included in the,major broadcast networks’ averages.

Average viewership for the speech on Fox News Channel was 10.678 million, the most among the week’s cable programs and sixth overall.

Five of the week’s six most-watched cable programs were Fox News Channel programming related to the speech. The lone exception was the AMC horror series “The Walking Dead,” which was second among cable programs and seventh overall, averaging 10.163-million viewers.