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TV viewers welcome baseball back, at least for now

Posted July 28, 2020 7:00 am

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - Perhaps sensing the abbreviated season might not last long, television viewers welcomed baseball back with open arms from its coronavirus hiatus.

ESPN's coverage of the first game back, between the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals last Thursday, was the most-watched regular season baseball game in nine years, the Nielsen company said.

Weekend ratings were also solid. But considering that Major League Baseball on Tuesday temporarily suspended the Miami Marlins' season for the rest of the week because of their COVID-19 outbreak, there are fresh fears that the season will not be completed.

Fox's Saturday night coverage of Washington's win over the Yankees reached 2.8 million, or 19% over the average for all of its' prime-time games last year.

ESPN's weekend slate of games, taken as a whole, were up 70% percent in audience over weekend games last year, Nielsen said.

News programming continued to dominate prime time last week, led by a CBS rerun of 'œ60 Minutes."

CBS led all broadcast networks with an average of 3.1 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 2.8 million, ABC had 2.2 million, Fox had 1.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo average 880,000.

Fox News Channel led the cable networks, averaging 3.05 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 2.04 million, CNN had 1.36 million, HGTV had 1.3 million and TLC had 1.29 million.

ABC's 'œWorld News Tonight'ť led the evening newscasts with an average of 8.8 million viewers. NBC's 'œNightly News'ť had 7.6 million, and the 'œCBS Evening News'ť had 5.3 million.

For the week of July 20-26, the 20 most popular prime-time programs, their networks and viewerships:

1. 'œ60 Minutes,'ť CBS, 6.52 million.

2. 'œNCIS,'ť CBS, 5.36 million.

3. 'œAmerica's Got Talent,'ť NBC, 5.08 million.

4. 'œCelebrity Family Feud,'ť ABC, 4.44 million.

5. 'œHannity'ť (Thursday), Fox News, 4.35 million.

6. 'œHannity'ť (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.29 million.

7. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.24 million.

8. 'œHannity'ť (Tuesday), Fox News, 4.17 million.

9. 'œFBI,'ť CBS, 4.12 million.

10. 'œYoung Sheldon,'ť CBS, 4.113 million.

11. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Tuesday), Fox News, 4.105 million.

12. ML Baseball: N.Y. Yankees at Washington, ESPN, 4.08 million.

13. 'œAmerica's Funniest Home Videos,'ť ABC, 4.05 million.

14. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Thursday), Fox News, 4.023 million.

15. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Monday), Fox News, 4.022 million.

16. 'œHannity'ť (Monday), Fox News, 3.9 million.

17. 'œTitan Games,'ť NBC, 3.82 million.

18. 'œChicago PD,'ť NBC, 3.78 million.

19. 'œThe Neighborhood,'ť CBS, 3.77 million.

20. 'œYellowstone,'ť Paramount, 3.68 million.

Washington Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle throws during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees at Nationals Park, Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The Associated Press

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