Popular 'Bachelorette' finale boosts ABC in ratings
NEW YORK (AP) - Summer's most popular entertainment series, NBC's "America's Got Talent," had a little competition last week.
ABC's "The Bachelorette" delivered its best ratings for the franchise in two years along with a surprise finale last week, when Heather Brown revealed she had called off the engagement to her selection.
The show drew 7.5 million, only a half million less than "America's Got Talent."
The twin entertainment shows last Tuesday may have caused a dent in CNN's ratings for the first of two nights of its presidential debate that night. The next night, CNN's debate audience was 2 million more. Democratic front-runner Joe Biden debated on Wednesday.
NBC won the week in prime time with an average of 3.7 million. ABC had 3.6 million, CBS had 2.7 million, Fox had 1.7 million, ION Television had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 1.06 million, Univision had 1.05 million and the CW had 650,000.
CNN was the week's most popular cable networks, averaging 3.17 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.51 million, MSNBC had 1.26 million, Discovery had 1.23 million and HGTV had 1.21 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.1 million viewers. The "NBC Nightly News" had 6.8 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 4.9 million.
For the week of July 29-Aug. 4, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "Presidential Debate" (Wednesday), CNN, 10.77 million; "Presidential Debate Analysis" (Wednesday), CNN, 9.21 million; "Presidential Debate" (Tuesday), CNN, 8.69 million; "Presidential Debate Intro," (Wednesday), CNN, 8.21 million; "Presidential Debate Analysis" (Tuesday), CNN, 8.11 million; "America's Got Talent," NBC, 7.98 million; "The Bachelorette" (Tuesday), ABC, 7.52 million. "The Bachelorette" (Monday), ABC, 7.25 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 6.49 million; "Presidential Debate Intro" (Tuesday), CNN, 6.31 million.
___
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.
___
Online:
http://www.nielsen.com