NBC Wins Broadcast’s Battle for ‘Celebrating America’ Eyeballs

Last night, we unmasked our new president and vice– no wait, sorry, we’re mixing up two primetime telecasts here. Among the broadcast-TV channels, NBC topped Inauguration Day’s “Celebrating America” simulcast, which was hosted by Tom Hanks and featured speeches by new president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, Fox revealed the identity of the guy who dressed up as a cricket on “The Masked Dancer.” The “Masked Singer” spinoff and Fox’s 9 p.m. show “Name That Tune” did well enough to force a three-way primetime-ratings tie among adults 18-49 with NBC and ABC. NBC edged ABC for first place in total viewers. Further down the Nielsen sheets, on The CW, “Nancy Drew” experienced a rough return with its Season 2 premiere. Its lead-in, the Season 5 debut of “Riverdale,” fared a little better — but still not well. We’ll get Nielsen numbers for the cable news coverage of “Celebrating America” later today. It would be reasonable to expect a CNN win when all is said and done. “Celebrating America” did not air live coast-to-coast, which makes the below Nielsen numbers fairly stable. The 90-minute special ran from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In terms of primetime averages, NBC, ABC and Fox tied for first in ratings, each with a 0.6 rating/4 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic. NBC was first in total viewers with an average of 3.5 million, according to preliminary numbers. ABC was second in viewers with 3.4 million, Fox was fourth with 2.7 million.

For NBC, news coverage of Inauguration Day at 8 p.m. had a 0.7/4 and 3.9 million viewers. The 90-minute “Celebrating America” special drew a 0.8/4 and 3.9 million viewers. At “Chicago PD” rerun followed at 10 p.m. For ABC, a half-hour of inauguration coverage at 8 p.m. got a 0.8/4 and 4.3 million viewers. “Celebrating America” declined from there to a 0.6/4 and 3.6 million viewers. An episode of “The Conners” at 10 p.m., coded as a special due to the unusual scheduling, received a 0.6/4 and 3.1 million viewers. At 10:30 p.m., an episode of “Call Your Mother,” also coded a special, had a 0.4/3 and 2.4 million viewers. For Fox, “The Masked Dancer” at 8 p.m. got a 0.6/4 and 2.8 million viewers. “Name That Tune” at 9 p.m. had a 0.6/3 and 2.7 million viewers.

Univision and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings, both with a 0.3/2. Univision was fifth in total viewers with 1.1 million, Telemundo was sixth with 855,000.

The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/1 and in viewers with 573,000. At 8 p.m., the Season 5 premiere of “Riverdale” settled for a 0.2/1 and 655,000 viewers. The Season 2 premiere of “Nancy Drew” at 9 p.m. limped to a 0.1/0 and 491,000 viewers.