NFL draft a big draw, but not a record-setter

Still, it wasn’t quite as popular as the most-watched draft ever. That came in 2014 when another quarterback, in this case Johnny Manziel, was selected first by the Cleveland Browns. That draft reached 12.4 million people on Thursday, the Nielsen company said.

Coverage of the third day of the draft, when the players really start getting obscure, reached nearly 3 million and was the most ever, Nielsen said.

With ABC’s “Roseanne” in repeats, CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” returned to the top of the ratings, reaching 11.8 million people.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 6.4 million viewers. ABC had 4.5 million, NBC had 4.4 million, Fox had 2.7 million, Univision had 1.6 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.2 million and the CW had 1.1 million.

TNT was the most popular cable network, averaging 2.74 million viewers in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.35 million, ESPN had 1.86 million, MSNBC had 1.75 million and USA had 1.45 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.3 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 7.7 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.9 million.

For the week of April 23-29, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “The Big Bang Theory” (Thursday, 8 p.m.) CBS, 11.8 million; “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 11.16 million; “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 9.26 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.16 million; “American Idol” (Sunday), ABC, 8.77 million; “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 8.43 million; “Mom,” CBS, 8.31 million; “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 8.13 million; “Survivor,” CBS, 7.82 million; “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 7.79 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com