NEW YORK — Two television shows that were saying farewell last week — one permanently and the other for a few months — may have gained more viewers as people stayed home last week because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The final episode of CBS' “Hawaii Five-0” and the season finale of ABC's "The Good Doctor were both seen by 40% more viewers last week than watched those shows during the one-month period before the outbreak confined many viewers to their homes, the Nielsen company said.
The landmark nature of the telecasts surely brought in more viewers than usual. But the fact that more people are staying at home also had an impact, since most prime-time shows did better last week than before the quarantine period.
Both CBS' “FBI: Most Wanted” and Fox's “The Masked Singer” were up 30% last week over the quarantine period, according to a study conducted by NBC.
Other notable winners were NBC's “Dateline Mystery" and “Superstore,” CBS' “Mom” and “MacGyver” and ABC's soon-to-depart “Modern Family.”
Only a few shows dropped in viewers last week compared to the period between Feb. 10 and March 8, with the largest being NBC's kid-friendly “Little Big Shot.” That's probably because it competed directly with one of President Donald Trump's coronavirus briefings this past Sunday.
CBS was the most popular network in prime time last week, averaging 6.7 million viewers. ABC had 4.9 million, NBC had 4 million, Fox had 3.2 million, Univision had 1.7 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 520,000.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network, averaging 4.07 million viewers in prime time. CNN had 2.25 million, MSNBC had 2.07 million, TLC had 1.21 million and HGTV had 1.17 million.
ABC's “World News Tonight” led the evening newscasts with an average of 13.7 million viewers. NBC's “Nightly News” had 10.6 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.3 million. The ABC and NBC newscasts ran extra editions last week because of the coronavirus news, adding 2 million viewers to the ABC average and 800,000 to NBC's, Nielsen said.
For the week of March 30-April 5, the top 20 shows, their networks and viewerships:
1. “NCIS,” CBS, 13.66 million.
2. “FBI,” CBS, 10.86 million.
3. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 10.14 million.
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10 million.
5. “The Voice,” NBC, 9.78 million.
6. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 9.59 million.
7. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 8.9 million.
8. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 8.77 million.
9. “Survivor,” CBS, 8.25 million.
10. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 8.11 million.
11. “The Good Doctor,” ABC, 7.71 million.
12. “Academy of Country Music Presents: Our Country,” CBS, 7.69 million.
13. “Mom,” CBS, 7.62 million.
14. “911,” Fox, 7.22 million.
15. “Grey's Anatomy,” ABC, 7.19 million.
16. “Station 19,” ABC, 7.18 million.
17. “Broke,” CBS, 7.073 million.
18. “MacGyver,” CBS, 7.073 million.
19. “Man With a Plan,” CBS, 7.06 million.
20. “American Idol,” ABC, 6.92 million.
David Bauder, The Associated Press
