NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

‘America’s Got Talent’ ends season on top

NEW YORK

“America’s Got Talent” ended its summer run last week with the most-watched entertainment programs on television since May, although its popularity dipped this summer.

Just under 13 million people watched the final two episodes of the NBC competition last week, where magician Shin Lim was chosen as the winner. While those were bigger audiences than any entertainment show since the last original episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” Wednesday’s finale was down 18 percent from the 2017 season finale, the Nielsen company said.

Last season was an anomaly for the talent show, which had its highest ratings ever during its 12th season. Young ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer was a popular winner in 2017. Overall, viewership for the main Tuesday edition of the show was down 11 percent from last year, Nielsen said.

For the week of Sept. 17-23, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: New England at Detroit, NBC, 19.46 million; “NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 13 million; “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 12.99 million; “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 12.88 million; NFL Football: Seattle at Chicago, ESPN, 11.89 million; “The OT,” Fox, 11.55 million; “Emmy Awards,” NBC, 10.22 million; “911,” Fox, 9.83 million; “Football Night in America,” NBC, 9.13 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.99 million.

Associated Press