Quick, before you read further, guess what the highest-rated television (broadcast and cable) program for the week of June 28 was – the program that had the most total viewers.

Did you guess “60 Minutes,” or “The Bachelorette,” or “Tucker Carlson,” or “The NBA Playoffs,” or “Young Sheldon” or “America’s Got Talent”?

Did you make a guess based on your own TV viewing habits?  TV viewing is mostly based on habit and confirmation bias. Also, what you watch is what you assume most people watch.  I call it the Polo Assumption.

When I was with CBS in the late 1960s, there was a story, probably apocryphal, about a CBS Network salesman who called on Harvey Firestone, the head of Firestone Tires in his office in Akron, OH.  The CBS salesman said, “Mr. Firestone, your great brand, your high-quality tires should advertise on CBS’s highest-quality program, ‘Face the Nation.’”

Firestone asked when the program aired.  The CBS salesman replied, “3:00 pm Sunday afternoon.”  Firestone’s immediate response was, “That’s crazy!  Nobody’s watching TV at 3:00 o’clock Sunday afternoon.  EVERYBODY is playing polo!”

Everyone was not playing polo the week of June 28-July 4.  The most-watched TV program that week was “ABC World News Tonight” with David Muir that had 7,611,000 total viewers and 1,311,000 viewers in the advertiser-preferred 25-54 demographic (83% not 25-54). 

“ABC World News Tonight” had more viewers that week than the number-one prime time broadcast network program, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” on Tuesday night that had 7,083,000 total viewers and the number-one cable TV program, the “NBA Playoffs” that had 5,857,000 total viewers.

The highest-rated cable TV program the week of June 28 that was not an NBA playoff game was “Hannity” on Fox News with 3,537,000 total viewers.  Thus, David Muir on the average evening had more than twice (115 percent) the viewers that Hannity did.

The week of June 28, “NBC, Nightly News” with Lester Holt averaged 6,653,00 total viewers and 1,181,000 adults 25-54 (83% not 25-54), making it the third-most-watched show on TV, after “ABC Worlde News Tonight” and “America’s Got Talent.”

“CBS Evening News” with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4,867,000 total viewers, and 852,000 adults 25-54 (83% not 25-54) for the week of June 28, which made it the most-watched broadcast on the CBS network each day that week.  The “CBS Evening News” average viewers for the week beat “60 Minutes,” which had 4,660,000 total viewers on Sunday, July 4.

Why are the broadcast TV networks’ evening news programs (6:30-7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time) the most popular TV programs?  Is it because the news programs are so good, is it because entertainment programs are so bad (raise your hand if you have watched “America’s Got Talent” or “Young Sheldon” in the last year) or is it because of streaming: Netflix, Disney +, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming services?

There are not good up-to-date, daily news options on the streaming services, but their commercial-free (except for Hulu) entertainment content has gotten so good that broadcast and cable entertainment (not sports) programs are a boring anachronism to many viewers.

One of the dumbest responses of the broadcast and cable networks to the threat of streaming services has been to increase their commercial loads in order to make their unrealistic revenue budgets, which, of course, drives even more people to commercial-free streaming.

This week it was reported that Apple was bidding to stream NFL games.  The Ad Week Network reported:

Apple has expressed interest in the streaming rights for a package of National Football League games the NFL is now auctioning, said people familiar with the situation, a possible sign the tech giant is looking to beef up the audience for its Apple TV+ streaming service.

The streaming services have decimated broadcast and cable entertainment content.  If Apple, Amazon or other streaming services pick off live sports, especially the NFL, from the TV networks, they are toast.  All they will have left to attract large (and older and older) audiences will be their news programs

Walter Cronkite would be pleased.