ESPN, Hallmark Dominate Primetime Cable Ratings in Final Week of 2017

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On the strength of live sports and holiday programming fare, ESPN and Hallmark closed out the final week of 2017 as the most watched cable networks in primetime, according to Nielsen.

ESPN was the most watched network for the holiday week of Dec. 25 to Dec. 31 with 6.4 million viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel, which averaged 2.2 million viewers on the appeal of its Holiday-themed original movies slate.

Fox News was third with 1.5 million viewers, followed by USA Network (1.4 million viewers) and TNT (1.3 million), according to Nielsen.

ESPN and Hallmark also finished first and second respectively, on a 24-hour basis, followed by Fox News, Nickelodeon and Discovery Channel.

Fox News was topped all cable news networks for the week, followed by MSNBC (1 million viewers) and CNN (732,000 viewers,) according to Nielsen.

R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.