NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

‘Dancing With the Stars’ no longer hopping for ABC

NEW YORK

The dance floor is thinning over at ABC.

The Nielsen company says viewership is down for ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” franchise, which concluded its fall season Monday with country radio host Bobby Bones beating Disney star Milo Manheim, actress Evanna Lynch and model Alexis Ren.

Each episode averaged 8.2 million viewers the night that it aired and during the week afterward, down 22 percent from last year’s average of 10.4 million, Nielsen said. The show was once a routine top 10 performer for ABC, but last week’s semifinals finished out of the top 20. A figure for Monday’s finale was not immediately available.

In better news for ABC, the Rosanne Barr-less sitcom “The Conners” has turned into a solid prime-time performer. Its ratings don’t measure up to last year’s “Roseanne” revival, but last week’s episode was the third-most-watched comedy on television, behind CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” and its spinoff, “Young Sheldon.”

For the week of Nov. 12-18, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Minnesota at Chicago, NBC, 18.84 million; NFL Football: Green Bay at Seattle, Fox, 16.89 million; “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 13.32 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 12.56 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 12.47 million; “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 10.78 million; NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at San Francisco, ESPN, 10.65 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.29 million; “CMA Awards,” ABC, 10.11 million; “Thursday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” Fox, 9.46 million.

Associated Press