‘The Voice’ helps boost NBC into the winner’s circle in TV ratings race

The semifinal performance and results shows of “The Voice” were last week’s two most-watched non-NFL programs, and “Sunday Night Football” was the highest-rated program overall, combining to help NBC finish first in the TV ratings race.

The “Voice’s” hour-long results show Dec. 10 averaged 8.3 million viewers, seventh overall among broadcast and cable programs airing between Dec. 9 and 15, according to live-plus-same day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

The only programs with more viewers were three NFL games, two “Sunday Night Football” pregame shows and Fox’s NFL post-game show, “The OT.”

The two-hour performance show for “The Voice” on Dec. 9 was eighth for the week, averaging 8.2 million viewers, the most for a Monday edition of the singing competition since the Oct. 7 episode averaged 8.5 million viewers.

The CBS comedy “Young Sheldon” drew the largest audience of any scripted program for the week, averaging 8.2 million viewers, finishing ninth overall and third among non-NFL programs. “Young Sheldon” has been the top-rated comedy 11 times in the 12-week-old 2019-20 prime-time television season.

A rerun of CBS’ “NCIS” was the week’s top ranked drama, averaging 7.5 million viewers, 11th overall and fifth among non-NFL programs.

“Bob Hearts Abishola” was the highest-rated new series, averaging 5.9 million viewers, 23rd overall and 17th among non-NFL programs. CBS has had the most-watched new series each week of the season.

“Sunday Night Football” drew the biggest audience for the eighth time this television season, with the Buffalo Bills’ 17-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers averaging 18.1 million viewers.

NBC led the networks for the sixth time this season, averaging 5.9 million viewers. Fox was second, averaging 5.5 million. CBS was third, averaging 5.4 million viewers. ABC was fourth for the 10th time this season, averaging 3.1 million viewers.

“The Conners,” which averaged 5.7 million viewers, 27th overall, drew ABC’s biggest audience and finished 20th among non-NFL programs and fifth among comedies.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” which averaged 11.8 million viewers for the Philadelphia Eagles’ 23-17 overtime victory over the New York Giants on Dec. 9, was fifth overall and first among all cable programs.

The Dec. 11 edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Hannity” was cable’s top ranked non-NFL program, and third among all cable programs, averaging 4.2 million viewers.

The Fox News Channel got higher ratings of any cable network for the third time in four weeks, averaging 2.9 million viewers. ESPN was second, averaging 2.4 million viewers. The Hallmark Channel was third, averaging 1.7 million viewers.