Football games send viewers to TV on cold weekend

NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL wild card games and the NCAA football championship gathered millions of people in front of their television sets on a cold winter weekend.

An average of 30.5 million people watched the NFL's wild card games on television and digitally over the weekend, which the league said was up 21% over the same games in 2021.

Meanwhile, Georgia's victory over Alabama for the NCAA football championship last week reached 22.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. That allowed the NCAA to rebound from the lackluster ratings of the New Year's Eve semifinals, which featured two non-competitive games.

Boosted by their wild card games, CBS averaged 10 million viewers and NBC had 6.8 million in prime time last week. ABC averaged 2.7 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 900,000.

ESPN averaged 3.69 million viewers in prime time, Fox News Channel had 2.24 million, MSNBC had 1.2 million, HGTV had 1.08 million and Hallmark had 978,000.

ABC's 'œWorld News Tonight'ť won the evening news race, averaging 9 million viewers. NBC's 'œNightly News'ť had 8.1 million and the 'œCBS Evening News'ť had 5.8 million.

For the week of Jan. 10-16, the 20 most popular programs in prime time, their viewerships and networks:

1. NFL Wild Card: Pittsburgh at Kansas City, NBC, 28.94 million.

2. NFL Wild Card: New England at Buffalo, CBS, 26.37.

3. 'œWild Card Post Game'ť (Sunday), CBS, 25.5 million.

4. NCAA Football Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, ESPN, 22.26 million.

5. 'œWild Card Pre Game'ť (Sunday), NBC, 19.64 million.

6. 'œNCAA Championship Post Game,'ť ESPN, 18.37 million.

7. 'œNCAA Championship Pre Game,'ť ESPN, 13.78 million.

8. 'œ60 Minutes,'ť CBS, 11.29 million.

9. 'œFBI,'ť CBS, 8.45 million.

10. 'œYoung Sheldon,'ť CBS, 7.7 million.

11. 'œChicago Fire,'ť NBC, 7.41 million.

12. 'œChicago Med,'ť NBC, 7.33 million.

13. 'œGhosts,'ť CBS, 6.48 million.

14. 'œBlue Bloods,'ť CBS, 6.44 million.

15. 'œFBI: International,'ť CBS, 6.29 million.

16. 'œChicago PD,'ť NBC, 5.81 million.

17. "Magnum, P.I., CBS, 5.77 million.

18. 'œFBI: Most Wanted,'ť CBS, 5.56 million.

19. 'œUnited States of Al,'ť CBS, 5.48 million.

20. 'œ911: Lone Star,'ť Fox, 5.03 million.