FS1 Hits Weekly Cable Ratings Home Run

FS1, led by its Major League Baseball playoffs coverage, was the most watched cable network in primetime last week, according to Nielsen.

The national sports network, which aired New York Yankees-Houston Astros American League Championship Series games, drew 3.9 million viewers during the week of Oct. 16-22, besting runner-up TBS, which rode its Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs National League Championship series coverage to a weekly audience average of 2.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

ESPN finished third with 2.1 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel's 2 million viewers and TNT’s 1.7 million. MSNBC and AMC (tied with 1.6 million viewers); USA Network and HGTV (tied with 1.1 million); and Discovery Channel and Hallmark (tied with 1 million) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks for the week.

Fox News Channel was the most watched network for the week on a 24-hour basis, followed by Nickelodeon, MSNBC, ESPN, FS1 and TBS.

FS1 was also the top choice in primetime for adults 18-49 for the week, while Adult Swim took top honors in the demo on a 24-hour basis.

The Oct. 22 season-eight premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead was the most watched cable show for the week with 11.4 million viewers, which was down from the 17 million viewers generated by the show’s season seven premiere last October, according to the network.

Get the week's Top 10 most watched cable shows at multichannel.com.

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.