NEW YORK (AP) – An estimated 13.5 million people watched Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton talk to Barbara Walters about her marriage on Sunday, or less than a third of the audience for Walters’ 1999 chat with Monica Lewinsky.
The New York senator made Walters the first TV stop on a tour to promote her memoir, “Living History.”
The interview was the fourth most-watched prime-time show of the week, giving ABC News a rare victory over CBS’ “60 Minutes.” It was also the most popular summertime show in that time slot for ABC since 1995, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Walters’ interview with Lewinsky – the first time Lewinsky had talked publicly about her affair with President Clinton – drew 48.5 million viewers.
About twice as many people saw an ABC interview with Michael Jackson this winter than watched Hillary Clinton. Connie Chung’s summer 2001 interview with Gary Condit had 23.7 million viewers.
CBS’ airing of the Tony Awards on Sunday was seen by just under 7.9 million people – the smallest audience on record for Broadway’s big night, Nielsen said.
NBC, which has moved more aggressively than its rivals into new summer programming, and CBS finished in a tie for first in prime time last week, each averaging 9.1 million viewers (NBC: 6.3 rating, 11 share; CBS: 6.2 rating, 11 share).
ABC and Fox were also tied with 6.8 million viewers (ABC: 4.5, 8; Fox: 4.3, 8), UPN had 3 million viewers (2.1, 4), the WB had 2.7 million (1.9, 3) and Pax TV had 1.1 million (0.8, 1).
NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.4 million viewers (6.9 rating, 15 share). ABC’s “World News Tonight” was second, averaging 7.8 million viewers (5.7, 12), and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.3 million (5.4, 11).
A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of June 2-8, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS, 15.3 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 14.7 million; “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 13.7 million; “ABC News Special: Hillary Clinton’s Journey,” ABC, 13.5 million; “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” NBC, 12.9 million; “Still Standing,” CBS, 12.9 million; “Law & Order,” NBC, 12.8 million; “Without a Trace,” CBS, 12.7 million; “Miss Universe Pageant,” NBC, 12.1 million; “American Juniors,” Fox, 11.9 million.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
