NEW YORK — “60 Minutes” managed to win the week's ratings competition and attract the attention of President Donald Trump on the same week.
With 9.5 million viewers Sunday, “60 Minutes” was easily the week's most-watched prime-time program, the Nielsen company said. The newsmagazine has been dominated by stories on the coronavirus pandemic the past two months. Its audience this past weekend was 22% larger than the same week a year ago.
Correspondent Scott Pelley's lead story was about a virologist whose federal funding to study the disease's origins was suddenly cut in what the show concluded was a deceptive political campaign to tie the project to a lab in Wuhan, China.
Trump, in a tweet, accused “60 Minutes” of doing everything within its power “to defend China and the horrible pandemic that was inflicted” on the United States and rest of the world.
With the weather getting warmer and stay-at-home orders no longer novel, television viewership in general is fading.
CBS was the most popular network in prime time last week, averaging 4.4 million viewers. NBC was second with 2.9 million, ABC had 2.7 million, Fox had 1.9 million, Univision had 1.03 million, ION Television had 1.01 million, Telemundo had 570,000 and the CW had 490,000.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks with an average of 3.42 million in prime time. MSNBC was second with 1.8 million, CNN had 1.48 million, TLC had 1.29 million and HGTV had 1.28 million.
ABC's “World News Tonight” led the evening newscasts with an average of 10 million viewers last week. NBC's “Nightly News” had 9 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.4 million.
For the week of May 4-10, the top 20 prime time programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.53 million.
2. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.59 million.
3. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.38 million.
4. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 7.29 million.
5. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.2 million.
6. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 7.18 million.
7. “911,” Fox, 7 million.
8. “Bull,” CBS, 6.88 million.
9. “Magnum, P.I.” (Friday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 6.87 million.
10. “The Neighborhood” (Monday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 6.55 million.
11. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 6.62 million.
12. “The Neighborhood” (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), CBS, 6.55 million.
13. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.45 million.
14. “FBI,” CBS, 6.34 million.
15. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” ABC, 6.2 million.
16. “American Idol” ABC, 6.16 million.
17. “Man With a Plan,” CBS, 6.1 million.
18. “Magnum, P.I.” (Friday, 10 p.m.), 6.09 million.
19. “The Conners,” ABC, 6.05 million.
20. “MacGyver,” CBS, 5.77 million.
David Bauder, The Associated Press
