For the first time in a long, long time, no broadcast drama or comedy crossed the 10 million viewer mark in Nielsen’s ratings throughout the season.
Only two prime-time NFL showcases – NBC’s Weekly Sunday night football (18.14 million viewers) and ABC’s four Monday night football telecasts (10.46 million) – reached double-digit millions of viewers for the 2022-23 season. That’s according to Nielsen’s final seven-day ratings for the 2022-23 season, which ended May 24.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Similarly, the number of shows that scored 1.0 or better in the key ad sales demographic of adults 18-49 dropped precipitously: where two dozen shows (not counting live sports) reached that mark in 2021-22, only three non-series football made it this year: CBS’ Survivor (1.04), Fox 911 (1.0) and NBC Chicago PD (1.0). chicago fire is just below this threshold at 0.99.
After football, CBS’s NCIS is the most-watched show on broadcast networks with 9.86 million viewers; the network has eight of the top 10 most-watched series (again, excluding sports) for the season.
Where have these missing viewers gone? Partly through streaming, which isn’t measured in Nielsen’s seven-day ratings, but can boost a show’s viewership by 30% or more for scripted series over the course of a week. CBS, for example, claimed seven shows with at least 10 million cross-platform viewers and five with 11 million or more.
Viewers under 50 are also more likely to stream shows than watch them live or via DVR, meaning a number of other series have likely crossed the Mulaney line (so named for the sitcom John Mulaney’s short-lived Fox 2014, when a 1.0 rating was a likely death knell) with the cross-platform boost.
Of the network’s 132 series airing in 2022-23 (excluding pre- and post-game sports, specials, and shows airing primarily during the summer), 15 handled total earnings from viewers from a season ago. Only five increased their ratings from 18 to 49, and six others were even in the key demo.
Nielsen’s seven-day ratings for the 2022-23 season are below.
The best of The Hollywood Reporter
Click here to read the full article.