ESPN took sole possession of first place in the primetime ratings race last week after sharing the title with Fox News Channel for the past two weeks, according to Nielsen.
ESPN — fueled by the 12.1 million viewers who watched its Nov. 8 Chicago Bears-Pittsburgh Steelers Monday Night Football telecast — averaged 3 million viewers for the week of Nov. 8-14 in primetime, distancing itself from second place Fox News, which averaged 2.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
Hallmark Channel rode its original holiday-themed movies to a third-place finish with 1.4 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 1.1 million watchers.
TLC was fifth with 865,000 viewers, followed by TBS (848,000 viewers), Paramount Network (828,000), HGTV (825,000), INSP (762,000) and Food Network (716,000.)
Fox News was the most watched network on a total-day basis for the 39th consecutive week, followed by ESPN (983,000 viewers), Hallmark Channel (804,000), MSNBC (682,000) and HGTV (514,000), said Nielsen. ■
