ESPN, boosted by its College Football Playoff National Championship game telecast, retained the top spot on the primetime ratings charts for the third straight week, according to Nielsen.
ESPN averaged 3.8 million viewers for the week of January 10 to January 16, easily beating Fox News Channel, which averaged 2.2 million viewers to finish in second place. The sports network was bolstered by the 22.2 million viewers who tuned into its January 10 Alabama-Georgia CFP title game, won by Georgia 38-18.
MSNBC finished third for the week with 1.2 million viewers, followed by HGTV’s 1 million viewers and Hallmark Channel’s 972,000 watchers. TLC (860,000 viewers), INSP (793,000), History (788,000), Discovery Channel (731,000) and Food Network (713,000) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks for the week.
Fox News was the most watched network on a 24-hour basis for the second week in a row, averaging 1.4 million viewers. ESPN was next with 1.1 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (690,000 viewers), HGTV (614,000) and Hallmark Channel (553,000), said Nielsen. ■
