NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Return of football leads NBC to dominating win

NEW YORK

The return of football and back-to-back prime-time interviews with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump led NBC to a decisive victory in the television ratings.

Both the season-opening Super Bowl rematch between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos and a Sunday night game involving a Tom Brady-less New England team and Arizona both reached more than 20 million viewers, the Nielsen company said.

NBC also reached 14.7 million viewers for the “Commander-in-Chief Forum” featuring Clinton and Trump. Given the rough reception given to moderator Matt Lauer, NBC may have a hard time celebrating that ratings achievement.

Add in summer’s top show in its waning weeks, “America’s Got Talent,” and it made for a dominant week for NBC.

The network averaged 11.1 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 4.5 million, CBS had 4.2 million, Fox had 3.9 million, Telemundo had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.6 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and the CW had 1.1 million.

For the week of Sept. 5 to 11, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Carolina at Denver, NBC, 25.19 million; NFL Football: New England at Arizona, NBC, 23.08 million; “NFL Pre-Game Show” (Thursday), NBC, 18.51 million; “NFL Pre-Game Show” (Sunday), NBC, 17.67 million; “Commander-in-Chief Forum,” NBC, 14.72 million; “The OT,” Fox, 14.36 million; “Football Night in America,” NBC, 12.19 million; “America’ Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.96 million; “NFL Kick-Off Show” (Thursday), NBC, 10.62 million; “America’s Got Talent”(Wednesday), NBC, 10.61 million.

TV’s new ‘Star Trek’ takeoff delayed

LOS ANGELES

The latest TV edition of “Star Trek” is launching a few months later than planned.

Streaming service CBS All Access said Wednesday that “Star Trek: Discovery” will debut in May 2017 instead of January.

In a statement, series producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller said their aim is to “dream big and deliver” and they decided the additional time was needed to achieve their vision for the show.

After its premiere next spring on the CBS broadcast network, further episodes of the new “Star Trek” series will be available only on CBS All Access.

To help fill in until “Star Trek: Discovery” begins, a previously announced spinoff of CBS’ “The Good Wife,” starring Christine Baranski, will debut next February on the network and then move to CBS All Access.

Associated Press