Latifah's 'Equalizer' stays strong after Super Bowl premiere

 CBS’ reboot of “The Equalizer” with Queen Latifah took advantage of its post-Super Bowl series premiere to continue its strong showing in prime time ratings with its second episode.

The revenge drama came in third place and had a major, and inevitable, drop after drawing 20 million viewers in the most coveted of all time slots after the network’s airing of the “Super Bowl.” Its 8.2 million viewers last week put it behind only old ratings standard bearers “NCIS” and “60 Minutes,” according to figures released Wednesday by the Nielsen company.

“The Equalizer,” with Latifah in the title role, is a remake of CBS’s 1980s series that was more recently the source of two films with Denzel Washington. It helped give CBS all five of the top five shows. “FBI” ranked fourth, “Young Sheldon” fifth.

For the week, CBS was the most-watched broadcast network, averaging 5.2 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 3.8 million, NBC had 3.2 million, Fox had 2.9 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 990,000.

Coverage of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump kept MSNBC and CNN closer than usual, but Fox News Channel was still the week’s top cable network, averaging 2.5 million viewers. MSNBC had 2.49 million, CNN had 1.97 million, TNT had 1.2 million and HGTV had 1.1 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 9.5 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.1 million.

For the week of Feb. 8-14, the 20 most-watched programs, their networks and viewerships:

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 9.8 million.

2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.4 million.

3. “Equalizer,” CBS, 8.2 million.

4. “FBI,” CBS, 7.7 million.

5. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.6 million.

6. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.5 million.

7. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.3 million.

8. “American Idol, ABC, 6.9 million.

9. “911,” Fox, 6.87 million.

10. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.5 million.

11. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 6.3 million.

12. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” 6.1 million.

13. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 6 million.

14. “Magnum P.I.,” CBS, 5.8 million.

15. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 5.6 million.

16. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 5.97 million.

17. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 5.6 million.

18. “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” ABC, 5.57 million.

19. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.54 million.

20. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 5.52 million.