Sports Dominate TV Watch-Time, Fox News Programs Rise Up

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for October 14-20, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

It was a big week for Fox News, which saw eight shows rise in the ranking week-over-week, including Special Report With Bret Baier, which previously had not been among the 50 most-watched programs. The Ingraham Angle also saw a notable jump, moving from No. 43 the previous week to No. 24. With mere weeks until the presidential election, this isn’t exactly a shocker — especially given Baier’s interview with VP Kamala Harris on Oct. 16 and the resulting coverage. 

A few more highlights from the ranking: 

• The NFL remains in first place, and increased its viewership from 6.87% the previous week to 7.10%. College football also grew watch-time week-over-week, from 5.76% to 5.81%. 

• Football coverage programming The OT and College Football Scoreboard also move up the chart, taking No. 14 and No. 15, respectively. 

• Thanks largely to reruns on ION, NCIS jumps from No. 23 to No. 10 with a 0.59% viewership share. 

• The Big Bang Theory was a week-over-week ranking newcomer, landing at No. 22 (up from No. 36), fueled by reruns on TBS. 

Football helped propel ABC to the top of the TV network ranking — get the details on The Measure.