Ratings Watch: Football, ‘Big Bang Theory’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Walking Dead’, Dem Debates Lead the Week

Quite a mix of programming leading this week’s ranker of most-watched programming, with football, comedy, drama, zombies, a soap opera, a reality competition, a newsmagazine and a presidential debate all in the top 10. (Now if someone could mash all those up, it would be the No. 1 show on TV!)

The Oct. 14 Democratic presidential debate on CNN wound up being one of the top 10 non-sports cable telecasts in history, although below this year’s Donald Trump-infused Republican debates.

Shows earning the largest audience lift last week included The Walking Dead (4.9 million), Blindspot (4.1 million), Empire (4.1 million), The Big Bang Theory (4.1 million), The Blacklist (4 million), Quantico (3.6 million, Scandal (3.5 million), Modern Family (3.4 million), How to Get Away with Murder (3.4 million), Blue Bloods (3.3 million) and American Horror Story (3 million).

Here are the top 25 shows (including Live+3 DVR and VOD data) for the week of October 12 to October 18.