British superstar Adele’s powerhouse voice reached 9.92 million listeners (and viewers) during CBS’ “Adele: One Night Only” special on Sunday night, making it the most-watched entertainment special since the Oscars seven months ago, although below the numbers snagged by “60 Minutes” and NBC’s football broadcast in the evening. The time-zone adjusted Live+Same Day fast national TV ratings from Nielsen do not include out-of-home viewing for the Adele special; CBS predicts that data tomorrow morning will show that the two-hour broadcast presentation will surpass the 10 million range.
Promoting her upcoming and long-anticipated album “30,” the English singer-songwriter’s special on CBS delivered over seven billion potential impressions and 269,000 mentions last night on social media. The special, which showcased Adele’s first new material in six years as well as old hits, garnered a 1.5 rating in the target, ages 18-49 demographic. The special also included an exclusive interview between the Grammy winner and Oprah, in which Adele discussed juggling her divorce, motherhood, career and body image. #Adele trended in the top 10 in the United States for 11 hours overall and peaked at the top for five consecutive hours. The interview was available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount Plus.
The balance of CBS’ Sunday lineup was mostly encores, but from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., “60 Minutes” reigned as the most-watched non-sports primetime program on Sunday, delivering a seasons-best of 12.52 million viewers. The episode featured Bill Whitaker reports on the U.S.’ struggling supply chain, Scott Pelley interviewing Andrew Sullivan and a segment on the making of the Beatles’ “Let It Be.”
Another high-performer for CBS last night was the NFL Overrun prior to NBC’s “Football Night in America,” which obtained 19.05 million viewers and a rating of 3.8 in the key demo. NBC’s broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs versus Oakland Raiders game at 8:30 p.m. lured in 13.50 million viewers and a target demographic rating of 3.6. Of the remaining Big 4 networks, ABC’s top performer during Sunday primetime was “America’s Funniest Home Videos” at 7 p.m., which got 4.54 million viewers and a rating of 0.4, and Fox’s top performer was a re-run of “Bob’s Burgers” during the same time slot (3.20, 0.8).