NFL, ’60 Minutes’ lead TV ratings as ‘Quantum Leap’ and ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ premiere

“60 Minutes” was the top-rated non-NFL program in the first week of the 2022-23 prime-time television season and “FBI” was the most popular entertainment program, while the week’s lone scripted premiere, NBC’s “Quantum Leap” reboot, was fourth in its time slot.

The CBS newsmagazine averaged 7.144 million viewers, sixth among prime-time broadcast and cable prime-time programs airing between Sept. 19 and Sunday behind two NFL games, two NFL pregame shows and an NFL postgame show, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

“FBI” was ranked seventh, averaging 6.806 million viewers. Four other entertainment programs averaged more than 6 million viewers. “Chicago Fire” averaged 6.746 million viewers, eighth for the week. “Chicago Med,” which preceded “Chicago Fire” on NBC, was ninth for the week, averaging 6.585 million.

The two-hour episode of “The Voice” Sept. 20 was 11th for the week, averaging 6.191 million. The season premiere of the NBC singing competition one night earlier was 13th, averaging 6.117 million viewers, one spot behind the 13-minute pregame show immediately preceding ABC’s “Monday Night Football,” which averaged 6.164 million viewers.

“Quantum Leap” averaged 3.348 million viewers, 44th among the week’s prime-time broadcast and cable programs and fifth among programs beginning at 10 p.m. It retained 54.7% of the audience from the season premiere of “The Voice” which preceded it. Viewership grew to 5.1 million viewers in the three-day period after it initially aired. The 53% increase was the most for an NBC premiere since “Manifest” in 2018, according to the network.

The week’s other premiere, ABC’s “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” averaged 4.03 million viewers, 33rd for the week, 22nd among non-sports programs and second among ABC’s non-sports programs. Viewership was 227.1% higher than the preceding special “Global Citizen Festival: Take Action NOW,” which averaged 1.232 million viewers.

Viewership for the second episode of Fox’s country music drama “Monarch” dropped 57.5% from its 4.034 million average for its premiere Sept. 11 immediately following its NFL coverage to 1.716 million viewers, 68th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

For the third time in the three-week-old NFL season, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the top ranked prime-time program, with the Denver Broncos’ 11-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers averaging 17.802 million viewers, 8.9% less than the 19.545 million average for the Green Bay Packers’ 27-10 victory over the Chicago Bears one week earlier.

The total audience for Sunday’s game, which includes streaming viewership on Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL digital platforms, was 18.9 million viewers, 9.1% less than the total audience for the Packers-Bears game, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics figures.

NBC finished first on premiere week for the fourth consecutive season, averaging 5.99 million viewers. It also led among entertainment programming.

ABC was second, averaging 4.52 million. Its ratings leader was the Philadelphia Eagles’ 24-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on “Monday Night Football,” which averaged 12.859 million viewers, second for the week.

ABC’s top non-sports program was “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” 30th for the week averaging 4.302 million viewers.

CBS was third, averaging 3.85 million viewers. It did not air any prime-time NFL programming.

Fox averaged 3.95 million viewers.

Fox’s ratings were led by the 28-minute NFL postgame show, “The OT,” which averaged 12.133 million viewers, fourth for the week. Its highest ranked non-sports program was the sixth season premiere of procedural drama “9-1-1,” 25th for the week and 15th among non-sports programs, averaging 4.817 million.

The CW averaged 330,000 viewers. The 8:30 p.m. Sunday rerun of “World’s Funniest Animals” was its biggest draw for the third time in four weeks, averaging 561,000 viewers, 169th among broadcast programs.

The CW will begin airing its new programming for the 2022-23 season Oct. 2.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; Fox’s NFL postgame show, “The OT”; “60 Minutes”; five CBS scripted programs — “FBI,” “NCIS,” “FBI: International,” “NCIS: Hawaii” and “FBI: Most Wanted”; the CBS alternative series “Survivor”; four NBC scripted programs — “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and two episodes of NBC’s “The Voice.”

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans on Sept. 19 topped the cable ratings, averaging 6.574 million viewers, 10th overall.

Fox News Channel returned to the top of the cable ratings after a three-week absence, averaging 2.117 million viewers. ESPN was second after three consecutive first-place finishes, averaging 2.022 million viewers. MSNBC averaged 1.209 million viewers for its fourth consecutive third-place finish after seven consecutive second-place finishes.

The cable top 20 consisted of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; ESPN’s coverage of the Arkansas-Texas A&M college football game; 13 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — five broadcasts of both “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and three of “The Ingraham Angle”; one edition each of the MSNBC news and opinion programs, “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell”; “All In With Chris Hayes” and “Alex Wagner Tonight”; ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox; and the HBO fantasy drama “House of the Dragon.”

Netflix’s most popular program was “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” with viewers spending 196.2 million hours watching the 10-episode limited series the first three days it was available, according to figures released by the streaming service.

“Do Revenge” was Netflix’s most-streamed movie, with viewers spending 42.55 million hours watching the teenage dark comedy in its first full week of release. Viewership was 59.3% from the 26.67 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days and finished second.