NEW YORK (AP) — In addition to eating turkey and visiting family, television sports occupied many Americans’ time over Thanksgiving weekend.
Some notable contests led to some television milestones, including the most-watched regular-season professional soccer game in history and the most-watched soccer game on American television, the Nielsen company said.
The loss of the Dallas Cowboys over the New York Giants which was shown on Fox’s Thanksgiving Day was viewed by an estimated 42 million people, Nielsen said. Two teams with national fans, both with good years, playing on a day where there is a captive audience, led to the record. The previous best was a December 1990 game between the Giants and San Francisco.
Fox broadcast of the World Cup match between the United States and England reached 15.38 million people on Friday. That alone surpassed the previous US record holder, the 1994 World Cup championship, and didn’t even count Telemundo’s viewership, which brought the total US audience to nearly 20 million. .
Saturday’s Michigan-Ohio State college football game, two traditional rivals, both undefeated before the matchup, playing a game with big scoring plays, was watched by 17 million people. That was the largest audience for a regular-season college football game since 2011, and the largest for Fox, Nielsen said.
They may not have set records, but both CBS and NBC had solid numbers for their Thanksgiving games. Buffalo and Detroit’s 31.6 million viewers was the most popular game on CBS so far this season, Nielsen said.
Meanwhile, NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was viewed by 25.8 million people, the most popular entertainment show of the year.
NBC was the most popular network for the week, averaging 8.2 million viewers in prime time. CBS had 4.1 million, Fox had 3.41 million, ABC had 3.35 million, Univision had 1.1 million, Ion had 870,000 and Telemundo had 820,000.
ESPN led cable networks with a primetime average of 2.99 million. Hallmark had 1.71 million, Fox News Channel had 1.64 million, Paramount had 1.24 million, and MSNBC had 772,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.3 million and “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million.
For the week of November 14-20, the top 20 most-watched primetime shows, their networks and viewership:
1. NFL Football: New England at Minnesota, NBC, 24.78 million.
2. “NFL Postgame” (Thursday), Fox, $21.66 million.
3. NFL Football: Green Bay at Philadelphia, NBC, $19.57 million.
4. “NFL Pregame” (Thursday), NBC, 18.13 million.
5. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, $14.85 million.
6. NFL Football: San Francisco at Arizona, ESPN, 11.17 million.
7. “America’s Soccer Night Part 3,” NBC, $10.77 million.
8. “The OT,” Fox, $9.11 million.
9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.03 million.
10. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, $8.36 million.
11. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, $7.86 million.
12. “FBI,” CBS, $7.54 million.
13. “NCIS,” CBS, $6.85 million.
14. College football: Florida at Florida St., ABC, $6.71 million.
15. College football: Notre Dame at USC, ABC, $6.68 million.
16. “The Equalizer,” CBS, $6.56 million.
17. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.19 million.
18. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 5.98 million.
19. “America’s Soccer Night Part 2,” NBC, $5.97 million.
20. “NFL Pregame” (Monday), ESPN, 5.87 million.
