HBO鈥檚 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥� lived up to the hype. This past weekend鈥檚 season premiere stands as the most-watched one-day event in the history of the cable network that began in 1978.
The Nielsen company said 17.4 million people watched the Sunday opener to the show鈥檚 final season, either live on the network at 9 p.m., streamed, through HBO鈥檚 on-demand service or during two reruns that aired later that night. Nielsen can鈥檛 account for people who watched more than once.
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HBO鈥檚 previous high-water mark was last season鈥檚 finale of 鈥淕ame of Thrones,鈥� making it likely that this new HBO record will be eclipsed when the series ends on May 19.
Nielsen said that 11.8 million people watched the season premiere traditionally, meaning when it first aired on the network at 9 p.m.
The numbers are likely to keep going up; HBO estimates that 32.8 million people watched each episode of the show last season. That includes people who watched weeks after it first aired and repeat viewers.
Viewership for the show is more impressive when you consider that HBO is a service that people have to specifically pay for. It is available in around 35 million households in the United States, or roughly a third of the number of homes that can see CBS, NBC and ABC.
Tiger Woods鈥� stirring comeback in the Masters gave CBS its biggest audience for that marquee golf tournament in six years, Nielsen said. Sunday鈥檚 final round, which was moved up several hours due to the threat of bad weather in Georgia, averaged 10.8 million viewers. The broadcast鈥檚 peak came when Woods won shortly after 2 p.m. ET, with 18.3 million viewers.
CBS easily won the week in prime-time, averaging 7.1 million viewers. ABC had 4.5 million viewers, NBC had 3.7 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.2 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 700,000.
Fox 亚洲天堂 Channel was the week鈥檚 most popular cable network, averaging 2.38 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.56 million, HGTV had 1.182 million, USA had 1.177 million and TNT had 1.11 million.
ABC鈥檚 鈥淲orld 亚洲天堂 Tonight鈥� topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers. NBC鈥檚 鈥淣ightly 亚洲天堂鈥� was second with 7.5 million and the 鈥淐BS Evening 亚洲天堂鈥� had 5.5 million viewers.
For the week of April 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NCAA Men鈥檚 Basketball Championship: Virginia vs. Texas Tech, CBS, 19.72 million; 鈥淣CIS,鈥� CBS, 11.82 million; 鈥淕ame of Thrones,鈥� HBO, 11.76 million; 鈥�60 Minutes,鈥� CBS, 8.72 million; 鈥淭he Code,鈥� CBS, 8.14 million; 鈥淏lue Bloods,鈥� CBS, 8.09 million; 鈥淭he Voice鈥� (Monday), NBC, 7.62 million; 鈥淪urvivor,鈥� CBS, 7.6 million; 鈥淣CAA Basketball Pre-Game Show,鈥� CBS, 7.47 million; 鈥淭he Voice鈥� (Tuesday), NBC, 7.32 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
HBO鈥檚 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥� lived up to the hype. This past weekend鈥檚 season premiere stands as the most-watched one-day event in the history of the cable network that began in 1978.
The Nielsen company said 17.4 million people watched the Sunday opener to the show鈥檚 final season, either live on the network at 9 p.m., streamed, through HBO鈥檚 on-demand service or during two reruns that aired later that night.
There鈥檚 a good chance that number will be eclipsed next month when the series signs off for good.
Meanwhile, CBS had its biggest audience for the Masters in six years with Tiger Woods鈥� stirring comeback.
David Bauder, The Associated Press
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