‘Stranger Things’ streaming is hot for Netflix; ’60 Minutes’ leads TV network ratings

The fourth season of “Stranger Things” was the most streamed program on Netflix for the second consecutive week and sixth time in the seven weeks it has been available. The first three seasons of the science fiction/horror series each finished in the top five.

Viewers spent 188.19 million hours watching the nine episodes of the fourth season between July 4 and Sunday, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday. Viewership was down 37.5% from the 301.28 million hours the previous week, which included the first three days the final two episodes were available. The season was streamed for 1.26694 billion hours during its first 28 days of release.

The first season of “Stranger Things” was second for the week with 45.22 million hours watched, followed by the third season of “The Umbrella Academy” (43.84 million hours) and the second (41.11 million) and third (36.59 million) seasons of “Stranger Things.”

“The Sea Beast” was the most popular movie on Netflix, with viewers spending 33.52 million hours watching the computer-animated film about a young girl who stows away on the ship of a legendary sea monster hunter in its first three days of release.

An edition of “60 Minutes” topped the television rankings for the second time in three weeks, averaging 6.022 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen. “America’s Got Talent” was the week’s only other program with more than 5 million viewers, averaging 5.489 million, one week after finishing first, averaging 5.982 million viewers.

ABC’s game show “Generation Gap” was the highest-ranked of the week’s four premieres on the five major broadcast networks, averaging 3.864 million viewers, fifth for the week and second among ABC programs behind “Celebrity Family Feud,” which was third, averaging 4.982 million viewers.

Viewership for the “Generation Gap” premiere was 8.1% larger than the season premiere of “Press Your Luck,” which preceded it and averaged 3.573 million viewers, ninth for the week and first in its Thursday 8-9 p.m. time slot.

“The Final Straw,” also on ABC, was second among the week’s premieres, averaging 3.007 million viewers, 17th for the week, including trailing two cable programs, and first in its 9-10 p.m. Sunday time slot. The physical comedy game show retained 60.6% of the audience of “Celebrity Family Feud,” which preceded it.

The premiere of the four-episode ABC News series investigating murders, “The Fatal Flaw: A Special Edition of 20/20,” averaged 2.067 million viewers following “Generation Gap,” 52nd for the week, including trailing nine cable programs.

“The Fatal Flaw” was second in its 10-11 p.m. Thursday time slot behind Fox News Channel political talk show “The Ingraham Angle,” which averaged 2.158 million viewers, 47th for the week and eighth among cable programs.

The other premiere, CBS’ competition program “The Challenge: USA,” averaged 2.326 million viewers, 42nd for the week, including trailing seven cable programs. “The Challenge: USA” retained 60.6% of the audience for the season premiere of “Big Brother,” which preceded it. “Big Brother” averaged 3.841 million viewers, sixth for the week.

Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” was the top-ranked prime-time sporting event for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.636 million viewers, 25th for the week, first among Saturday programs and Fox’s ratings leader.

The audience was the largest for a regular-season MLB game since the “Field of Dreams” game Aug. 12 averaged 5.851 million viewers. Most of the nation received the Boston Red Sox’s 6-5 10-inning victory over the New York Yankees from Fenway Park.

CBS won the network race for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.63 million viewers. NBC was second for the second consecutive week, averaging 2.59 million. ABC was third for the second consecutive week after finishing first each of the first four full weeks of television’s summer season, thanks to its coverage of the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final.

Fox averaged 1.44 million viewers.

The CW averaged 330,000 viewers. A rerun of the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” was its biggest draw, averaging 589,000 viewers, 163rd among broadcast programs.

The top 20 prime-time programs were: the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular”; the Wednesday and Sunday editions of the CBS alternative series “Big Brother”; six ABC alternative programs — “Celebrity Family Feud,” “Generation Gap,” a rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Press Your Luck,” “The Final Straw” and “The $100,000 Pyramid”; reruns of four CBS scripted programs — “FBI,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Young Sheldon” and “FBI: International”; reruns of the NBC series “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire”; and three editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Each of the top four prime-time cable programs were editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” led by the Thursday edition, which averaged 3.233 million viewers, 11th overall. It was the fourth consecutive week that at least three broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” have led the rankings of prime-time cable programs.

Fox News Channel had nine of the top 10 prime-time cable programs to win the cable network prime-time race for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 1.935 million viewers. Hallmark Channel was second, averaging 1.055 million, a 44.5% increase from its 730,000 average the previous week, when it finished fifth.

HGTV was third for the second consecutive week, averaging 978,000, a 14% increase from its 858,000 average the previous week.

The cable top 20 consisted of 12 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — four broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle”; the Sunday Fox News Channel political talk show “Life, Liberty & Levin”; the two-hour July 4 special “Fox News Presents: An Independence Day Celebration”; the Hallmark Channel movie “My Grown-Up Christmas List”; the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” game between the Yankees and Red Sox; the first two hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling program “WWE Raw” July 4; the TLC dating series “90 Day Fiance”; and History’s UFO investigation series, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”