'Weekend Update,' Diana special modest winners for networks

NBC's summer run of "Weekend Update" segments from "Saturday Night Live" and ABC's two-part special on Princess Diana were modest successes for their television networks last week.

The first of four weeks where "SNL's" Michael Che and Colin Jost deliver topical jokes on NBC's prime-time lineup was seen by nearly 4.9 million viewers last week. It was the 17th most popular program on last week but did better in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic NBC pays most attention to. Aside from "Game of Thrones," only competition shows like "America's Got Talent" or "Big Brother" beat the program among the younger viewers.

Although its audience skewed older, the two-part ABC News special recalling Diana also landed in the Nielsen company's top 20 last week. Only "The Bachelorette" did better last week for ABC.

With its powerful one-two punch of "America's Got Talent" and the summer finale of "World of Dance," NBC again dominated in the ratings last week.

NBC averaged 4.9 million viewers in prime time, Nielsen said. CBS had 3.99 million, ABC had 3.95 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.49 million, Telemundo had 1.45 million, ION Television had 1.3 million and the CW had 940,000.

Fox News Channel was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 2.09 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.72 million, USA had 1.46 million, HGTV had 1.41 million and TBS had 1.24 million.

ABC's "World News Tonight" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.8 million viewers. ABC's "World News" was second with 7.5 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.4 million viewers.

For the week of Aug. 7-13, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 13.32 million; "Game of Thrones," HBO, 10.72 million; "World of Dance," NBC, 8 million; "The Bachelorette," ABC, 7.58 million; "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 7.02 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.01 million; "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 6.4 million; "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 6.22 million; "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 6.2 million; "Big Brother" (Thursday), CBS, 5.979 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com