NBC RANKS #1 FOR PREMIERE WEEK IN 18-49 FOR A RECORD 9TH YEAR IN A ROW

NBC Also Wins Week 1 of the New Season in Total Viewers for the 2nd Year in a Row & Just the 2nd Time in the Past 19 Years

The +41% Advantage in Total Viewers Over #2 Is the Biggest Premiere-Week Percentage Margin for Any Net in 32 Years

Wednesday's "America's Got Talent" Finale Is Premiere Week's #1 Most-Watched Non-Sports / Non-News Telecast, "Sunday Night Football" Is the #1 Primetime Telecast Overall

Monday's "Ninja Warrior" Is the Night's #1 Entertainment Show on the Big 4 in Total Viewers, "Dateline" Delivers Its Most-Watched Monday Telecast Since July

On Tuesday, "Transplant" Matches the Prior Week's Series High, "Talent" Grows to Equal a 6-Week High

L+3 Nielsens: "Transplant" Has Delivered the Week's #1 Biggest L+3 Lift With Each of Its First Three Telecasts

AGT Hits Wednesday Season Highs With Its Finale, Up +50% Week to Week in 18-49; In Total Viewers, "Talent" Tops "Masked Singer" as the #1 Show of the Night

The Wall Matches NBC's Thursday 8-9 p.m. Non-Sports Highs Since May 21, "Dateline" Wins the 9-11 p.m. Slot in Viewers With NBC Highs, Excluding Sports, Since April 23

Lightning-Stars Game 4 Stanley Cup Hockey Gives NBC Its Top Friday Average in 18-49 Since May 8

The Next Night's Double-Overtime Game 5 Scores NBC's Top Saturday Average Since April 18

Packers-Saints "Sunday Night Football" Takes the Night in 10 of 10 Key Ratings Measures

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Sept. 29, 2020 - NBC has won the opening week of the 2019-20 primetime television season among the Big 4 networks in adults 18-49, adults 25-54, total viewers and every other key ratings category, according to "live plus same day" figures from Nielsen Media Research.

The win in adults 18-49 marks the ninth year in a row NBC has finished #1 or tied for #1 during Premiere Week in primetime's key demographic. It's the longest streak of Premiere Week #1 finishes in people meter history, dating back to 1987. Prior to this current NBC streak, the longest had been by ABC with five in a row from 2005 through 2009.

It's also the second year in a row and just the second time in 19 years NBC has won Premiere Week in total viewers (since taking the week in 2001). NBC's total-viewer margin of +41% over #2 (5.474 million for NBC, 3.888 million for Fox) is the biggest for any network for a Premiere Week in 32 years, since an +87% win by NBC in 1988 during the Seoul Olympics.

NBC's schedule was led by the week's #1 primetime program in 18-49 and total viewers, the Packers-Saints "Sunday Night Football" telecast. Excluding sports and news telecasts, the top two most-watched Big 4 primetime shows last week were Wednesday's season finale of "America's Got Talent" and Tuesday's final competition episode.

Extending back into the summer, this is the third week in a row NBC has ranked #1 in adults 18-49 and fifth week in a row in total viewers.

Weekly ratings are "live plus same day" figures from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise noted. Summer-to-date and Season-to-date ratings are averages of "live plus seven day" data except for the two most recent weeks, which are "live plus same day."

Week 1 Averages

Adult 18-49 Rating, "live plus same day," Sept. 21-27
NBC... 1.2
Fox... 1.1
ABC... 0.7
CBS... 0.5
CW... 0.1

Total Viewers
NBC... 5.5 million
Fox... 3.9 million
ABC... 3.8 million
CBS... 2.7 million
CW... 0.6 million

NBC highlights for the week of Sept. 21-27:

Monday

American Ninja Warrior (0.5 rating in 18-49, 3.5 million viewers overall from 8-10:01 p.m. ET) ranked as the #1 entertainment show of the night on the Big 4 networks in total viewers and tied as the #1 non-sports show among those nets in 18-49, retaining 100% week to week in 18-49 (0.5 vs. 0.5) and growing +9% in total viewers (3.482 million vs. 3.186 million).

Dateline NBC (0.4 rating in adults 18-49, 0.6 in adults 25-54, 3.0 million viewers overall from 10:01-11 p.m. ET) grew for a second straight week to deliver the most-watched Monday "Dateline" since July 20 (3.4 million). Week to week, "Dateline" maintained 100% in adults 18-49 (0.4 vs. 0.4) and increased by +5% in total viewers (3.0 million vs. 2.9 million).

Tuesday

NBC won Tuesday in total viewers, with "America's Got Talent" scoring as the night's #1 show. NBC has now ranked #1 or tied for #1 on 11 Tuesdays in a row among the Big 4 networks in total viewers.

America's Got Talent (0.8 rating in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall from 8-10:01 p.m. ET) was the #1 telecast of the night on the Big 4 networks in total viewers, while equaling a six-week high in 18-49, matching the show's top rating since Aug. 11 (0.9), and scoring a three-week high in total viewers with its most-watched episode since Sept. 1 (6.4 million). Week to week, "Talent" was up +14% in 18-49 (0.8 vs. 0.7) and +4% in total viewers (6.2 million vs. 5.9 million). Digital / Social: The Sept. 22 "Talent" tallied 715,200 Total Social Interactions, up +14% versus the show's Season 15 average (624,800).

Transplant (0.5 rating in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall from 10:01-11 p.m. ET) maintained 100% of the prior week's series-high rating in 18-49 (0.5 vs. 0.5) and increased +5% week to week in total viewers (3.8 million vs. 3.6 million). "Transplant" led the time period among ABC, CBS and NBC in adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and total viewers. Social: The Sept. 22 "Transplant" (1,800 Total Interactions) topped the show's season average by +14%, with a week-to-week increase of 67%. Linear L+3 Nielsens: The first three episodes of "Transplant" have each generated television's #1 biggest linear lifts in L+3 total viewers for each respective week, growing by +1.3 million persons in three days with the series premiere and then increasing the lift to +1.6 million in both Week 2 and Week 3).

Wednesday

NBC won the night among the Big 4 networks in total viewers versus Fox's night of premieres featuring "The Masked Singer" and "I Can See Your Voice."

A "Countdown to the Finale" episode of "America's Got Talent" (0.7 rating in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall from 8-9 p.m. ET) equaled NBC's highest 18-49 rating in the timeslot since April 15 (1.1). In total viewers, the "Countdown" special finished within 7% of the timeslot's season premiere of "The Masked Singer" on Fox (5.5 million vs. 5.9 million).

The live season finale of "America's Got Talent" (0.9 rating in 18-49, 6.6 million viewers overall from 9-11 p.m. ET) scored as the #1 telecast of the night in total viewers over competition that included Fox's season premiere of "The Masked Singer." The "AGT" finale hit a Wednesday season highs in 18-49 and total viewers with the highest "Talent's" Nielsens on any night of the week since Tuesday, Aug. 11 (0.9 in 18-49, 6.8 million viewers overall). Versus the prior Wednesday's "AGT," the finale was up +50% in 18-49 (0.9 vs. 0.6 from 8-9:01 p.m.) and +23% in total viewers (6.569 million vs. 5.330 million). These were NBC's best 18-49 and total-viewer results in the timeslot since April 15 (1.2 in 18-49, 8.643 million viewers). Digital / Social: The finale generated 1.2 million Total Social Interactions, to rank as the show's #3 most social episode of the season. The full season of "AGT" garnered 19.3 million Total Interactions to rank as the #1 most-social series of the summer in linear metrics, excluding WWE series (Source: Nielsen Social Content Ratings: 5/21/20-9/23/20. Linear metrics. All Series. All dayparts. Live or New. Excludes News, Sports, & WWE).

Thursday

The Wall (0.4 rating in 18-49, 3.0 million viewers overall from 8-9 p.m. ET) equaled NBC's highest 18-49 rating in the Thursday 8-9 p.m. timeslot, excluding sports, since May 21 (0.8) and generated NBC's best total-viewer result in the timeslot since that same night of May 21 (3.8 million).

Dateline NBC (0.4 rating in adults 18-49, 0.7 rating in adults 25-54, 3.4 million viewers overall from 9-11 p.m. ET) scored NBC's best 18-49 and total-viewer results in the timeslot, excluding sports, since April 23 (0.6 in 18-49, 3.350 million viewers overall). In the two-hour 9-11 p.m. timeslot, "Dateline" ranked #1 among the Big 4 networks in total viewers. From its first half-hour to its fourth, "Dateline" grew +33% in adult 25-54 rating (0.6 to 0.8) and +25% in total viewers (3.0 million to 3.7 million). Versus NBC's average in the timeslot through the summer of 2020, "Dateline" was up by +0.1 of a point or +33% in 18-49 (0.4 vs. 0.3) and by +1.6 million persons or +85% in total viewers (3.4 million vs 1.9 million).

Friday

NBC Sports coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 4 matchup between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars (0.6 rating in 18-49, 2.2 million viewers overall from 8-11 p.m. ET) tied for #1 for the night among the Big 4 networks in 18-49 and scored the net's highest Friday primetime 18-49 average since May 8 (0.6). In total viewers, the last time NBC topped its Sept. 25 primetime average on a Friday was Aug. 14 (2.7 million).

Saturday

NBC Sports coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 5 double-overtime game between the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning (0.7 rating in 18-49, 2.7 million viewers overall from 8 p.m.-12:03 a.m. ET) generated NBC's highest Saturday primetime average rating in 18-49 since April 18 (0.8).

Sunday

NBC Sports coverage of Green Bay Packers-New Orleans Saints "Sunday Night Football" (5.3/29 in 18-49, 17.7 million viewers overall from 8:23-11:34 p.m. ET) won the night among the Big 4 networks in 10 of 10 key ratings measures - adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers.