‘Wednesday’ bests the whole week, again

“Wednesday” edged out “Emily in Paris” to be Netflix’s most-streamed program for the fifth time in the five weeks the supernatural-infused mystery has been available.

Viewers spent 118.54 million hours watching “Wednesday’s” eight episodes between Dec. 19 and Sunday, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday. During its first 28 days of release — which concluded Dec. 20 — “Wednesday” was watched for 1.23712 billion hours, third on Netflix’s all-time list behind “Squid Game” (1.65045 billion) and the fourth season of “Stranger Things” (1.35209 billion).

The 10-episode third season of “Emily in Paris” was streamed for 117.61 million hours in the first five days it was available. “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was Netflix’s most popular movie with 82.14 million hours watched in the first three days it was available on the streaming service.

In a week with little first-run non-sports programming, an edition of “60 Minutes” with three previously broadcast segments was the only non-NFL prime-time program to average more than 5 million viewers, finishing 10th averaging 5.329 million viewers, behind three NFL games, four NFL pregame shows and two NFL postgame shows, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Wednesday.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the top-ranked prime-time program for the 14th time in its 16 games in the 2022 NFL season, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ overtime victory over the Arizona Cardinals averaging 17.146 million viewers, 11th among the season’s “Sunday Night Football” games, but more than the previous two games.

The only times “Sunday Night Football” did not finish first this season were the weeks of Nov. 7-13, when it trailed Fox’s seven-minute NFL postgame show, and Nov. 21-27 when NBC’s coverage of the Thanksgiving night game between the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots finished first.

“Sunday Night Football” put NBC at the top of the network race for the 12th time in the 14-week-old 2022-23 prime-time television season, averaging 4.33 million viewers. The only weeks NBC did not win this season came when Fox aired coverage of the World Series.

NBC’s top non-NFL program was the Christmas Eve showing of the 1946 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 25th for the week and 12th among non-sports programs, averaging 3.195 million viewers.

CBS was second, averaging 3.67 million, and ABC third, averaging 3.26 million.

CBS’ average included a 33-minute runover of its Christmas afternoon coverage of the Rams-Denver Broncos game, which averaged 20.02 million viewers. ABC’s average included a 51-minute runover of its afternoon Christmas Day NBA coverage that averaged 5.11 million viewers.

ABC’s highest rated non-sports program was a rerun of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” 21st for the week and eighth among non-sports programs, averaging 3.524 million viewers.

Fox averaged 1.51 million viewers, topped by a rerun of “Lego Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular,” 22nd for the week and ninth among non-sports programs, averaging 3.35 million viewers.

The CW averaged 440,000 viewers. Its biggest draw was “The Chosen: The Messengers.” The episode of the historical drama television series “The Chosen” previously seen on several streaming services about the birth of Jesus through the perspective of Mary and Joseph averaged 742,000 viewers, 128th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; five NFL pregame shows; two NFL postgame shows; “60 Minutes”; three CBS specials — a rerun of “The Price is Right at Night,” “Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon” and “Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!”; reruns of the CBS scripted series “Young Sheldon,” “The Neighborhood” and “NCIS”; ABC’s coverage of the Memphis Grizzlies-Golden State Warriors NBA game and its nine-minute pregame show; and ESPN’s coverage of the Gasparilla Bowl between Missouri and Wake Forest.

The Saturday Las Vegas Raiders-Pittsburgh Steelers game on NFL Network led all prime-time cable programming, averaging 10.938 million viewers, finishing sixth overall for the week.

The combination of “Monday Night Football” and bowl game coverage gave ESPN a win in the cable network race for the second consecutive week and seventh time in nine weeks, averaging 2.41 million viewers. Fox News Channel was second, averaging 1.523 million, and MSNBC third, averaging 1.228 million.

Hallmark Channel was the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.11 million viewers.

The cable top 20 consisted of two NFL games and two NFL pregame shows; ESPN’s coverage of the Gasparilla and Armed Forces bowls; eight Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows (five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and three of “Hannity”); History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; three hourlong segments of MSNBC’s coverage of Jan. 6 committee hearings; MSNBC’s 55-minute report on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington; and the Dec. 22 edition of the MSNBC news and opinion program, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”