NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The NFL wild card games and the NCAA football championship gathered millions of people in front of their television sets on a cold winter weekend.
An average of 30.5 million people watched the NFL's wild card games on television and digitally over the weekend, which the league said was up 21% over the same games in 2021.
Meanwhile, Georgia's victory over Alabama for the NCAA football championship last week reached 22.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. That allowed the NCAA to rebound from the lackluster ratings of the New Year's Eve semifinals, which featured two non-competitive games.
Boosted by their wild card games, CBS averaged 10 million viewers and NBC had 6.8 million in prime time last week. ABC averaged 2.7 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 900,000.
ESPN averaged 3.69 million viewers in prime time, Fox News Channel had 2.24 million, MSNBC had 1.2 million, HGTV had 1.08 million and Hallmark had 978,000.
ABC's 鈥淲orld News Tonight鈥� won the evening news race, averaging 9 million viewers. NBC's 鈥淣ightly News鈥� had 8.1 million and the 鈥淐BS Evening News鈥� had 5.8 million.
For the week of Jan. 10-16, the 20 most popular programs in prime time, their viewerships and networks:
1. NFL Wild Card: Pittsburgh at Kansas City, NBC, 28.94 million.
2. NFL Wild Card: New England at Buffalo, CBS, 26.37.
3. 鈥淲ild Card Post Game鈥� (Sunday), CBS, 25.5 million.
4. NCAA Football Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, ESPN, 22.26 million.
5. 鈥淲ild Card Pre Game鈥� (Sunday), NBC, 19.64 million.
6. 鈥淣CAA Championship Post Game,鈥� ESPN, 18.37 million.
7. 鈥淣CAA Championship Pre Game,鈥� ESPN, 13.78 million.
8. 鈥�60 Minutes,鈥� CBS, 11.29 million.
9. 鈥淔BI,鈥� CBS, 8.45 million.
10. 鈥淵oung Sheldon,鈥� CBS, 7.7 million.
11. 鈥淐hicago Fire,鈥� NBC, 7.41 million.
12. 鈥淐hicago Med,鈥� NBC, 7.33 million.
13. 鈥淕hosts,鈥� CBS, 6.48 million.
14. 鈥淏lue Bloods,鈥� CBS, 6.44 million.
15. 鈥淔BI: International,鈥� CBS, 6.29 million.
16. 鈥淐hicago PD,鈥� NBC, 5.81 million.
17. "Magnum, P.I., CBS, 5.77 million.
18. 鈥淔BI: Most Wanted,鈥� CBS, 5.56 million.
19. 鈥淯nited States of Al,鈥� CBS, 5.48 million.
20. 鈥�911: Lone Star,鈥� Fox, 5.03 million.
David Bauder, The Associated Press
