The MindShare Top 50
NFL Week 3 holds No. 1 at 84.2, down from 87.5: the biggest audience of the week came from Rio de Janeiro. Ravens–Cowboys drew 24.9 million on CBS, the most-watched NFL international game on record, with a peak above 30 million; Rams–Broncos on Sunday Night Football 20.8 million; Giants–Rams on Monday night 19.4 million across ESPN and ABC; FOX’s singleheader 17.9 million; CBS’s early doubleheader 17.7 million, its biggest Week 3 early window since 1990; and Falcons–Packers 16.8 million on Prime Video. Six national game windows summed 117.5 million, each counted at three hours, and the national studio shows ride the same line at their own length. Week 3’s windows averaged 20.2 million, a touch under Week 2, which is the whole of the drop. College Football Week 4 holds No. 2 (51.5) on 15 national windows plus College GameDay from Knoxville, led by the SEC on ABC sweeping the top three: Texas–Tennessee 9.75 million at noon, the season’s biggest noon audience, Ole Miss–Florida 8.3 million and Texas A&M–LSU 5.7 million.
The VMAs are new at No. 3 (26.9), the biggest non-football entry since the Emmys, on the show’s largest audience in eleven years, and The Voice’s premiere week is new right behind it at No. 4 (19.2). Sunday’s ceremony averaged 8.82 million across CBS and the MTV simulcast, up more than half on last year, and peaked above 16 million for the Madonna opener with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX. The Voice opened its 30th season to 5.33 million on Monday, above its last two premieres, and added 4.69 million Tuesday and 4.67 million Wednesday: three nights of new episodes plus six days in Peacock’s top 10 is more measured attention than any single streaming title this week. Netflix supplied the week’s two biggest scripted debuts: A Different World, the HBCU sitcom sequel with its original cast, enters at No. 8 (17.2) on 4.2 million views in four days, and UNABOMBER, with Jacob Tremblay as Kaczynski, at No. 9 (17.0) on 16.4 million views in three; Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story climbs to No. 5 (19.1) in its second week on 14.5 million views, and Wonka’s The Golden Ticket is new at No. 17. Neagley is the week’s biggest riser, No. 33 to No. 7, on its first full week at Prime Video No. 1. The rest of fall television came back with it: the Saturday Night Live premiere with Jalen Brunson and KATSEYE re-enters at No. 13 on 4.61 million plus 40.9 million clip views, Survivor 51 re-enters at No. 21, Dancing with the Stars sits at No. 11 and America’s Got Talent closes its season at No. 14. Avengers: Endgame Encore took the box office at $26.1 million and re-enters at No. 18; Resident Evil fell 62% to $23.0 million and leaves the chart from No. 13. The Presidents Cup is new at No. 15 on the most-watched final day since 2017, the WNBA playoffs open at No. 22 on the largest playoff audience a broadcast network has ever drawn for the league, and Kimmel’s first full week of originals lifts him from No. 21 to No. 12. Crew Girl, Why Did I Get Married Again? and The Perfect Lie leave as their Netflix weeks cool, and Jo Koy slips to No. 51. Music carries three entries: Morgan Wallen re-enters at No. 33 on the GTAVI single, Olivia Rodrigo sits at No. 43 and Ella Langley at No. 45.
On the numbers. The VMAs figure is Nielsen’s final CBS-plus-MTV average; the overnight was 8.43 million. SNL’s clip views are counted across the seven days after air, the standing treatment for that show. The football, WNBA, Presidents Cup and baseball entries are floors: windows without a published audience are not counted, and FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff and The OT had none this week. 60 Minutes did not air Sunday; CBS ran the NFL overrun into the VMAs. Cable news entries use a published full-week Nielsen average where one exists and the published nights where it does not, stated in each blurb.
The VMAs are new at No. 3 (26.9), the biggest non-football entry since the Emmys, on the show’s largest audience in eleven years, and The Voice’s premiere week is new right behind it at No. 4 (19.2). Sunday’s ceremony averaged 8.82 million across CBS and the MTV simulcast, up more than half on last year, and peaked above 16 million for the Madonna opener with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX. The Voice opened its 30th season to 5.33 million on Monday, above its last two premieres, and added 4.69 million Tuesday and 4.67 million Wednesday: three nights of new episodes plus six days in Peacock’s top 10 is more measured attention than any single streaming title this week. Netflix supplied the week’s two biggest scripted debuts: A Different World, the HBCU sitcom sequel with its original cast, enters at No. 8 (17.2) on 4.2 million views in four days, and UNABOMBER, with Jacob Tremblay as Kaczynski, at No. 9 (17.0) on 16.4 million views in three; Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story climbs to No. 5 (19.1) in its second week on 14.5 million views, and Wonka’s The Golden Ticket is new at No. 17. Neagley is the week’s biggest riser, No. 33 to No. 7, on its first full week at Prime Video No. 1. The rest of fall television came back with it: the Saturday Night Live premiere with Jalen Brunson and KATSEYE re-enters at No. 13 on 4.61 million plus 40.9 million clip views, Survivor 51 re-enters at No. 21, Dancing with the Stars sits at No. 11 and America’s Got Talent closes its season at No. 14. Avengers: Endgame Encore took the box office at $26.1 million and re-enters at No. 18; Resident Evil fell 62% to $23.0 million and leaves the chart from No. 13. The Presidents Cup is new at No. 15 on the most-watched final day since 2017, the WNBA playoffs open at No. 22 on the largest playoff audience a broadcast network has ever drawn for the league, and Kimmel’s first full week of originals lifts him from No. 21 to No. 12. Crew Girl, Why Did I Get Married Again? and The Perfect Lie leave as their Netflix weeks cool, and Jo Koy slips to No. 51. Music carries three entries: Morgan Wallen re-enters at No. 33 on the GTAVI single, Olivia Rodrigo sits at No. 43 and Ella Langley at No. 45.
On the numbers. The VMAs figure is Nielsen’s final CBS-plus-MTV average; the overnight was 8.43 million. SNL’s clip views are counted across the seven days after air, the standing treatment for that show. The football, WNBA, Presidents Cup and baseball entries are floors: windows without a published audience are not counted, and FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff and The OT had none this week. 60 Minutes did not air Sunday; CBS ran the NFL overrun into the VMAs. Cable news entries use a published full-week Nielsen average where one exists and the published nights where it does not, stated in each blurb.