CBS Poised To End 16th Consecutive TV Season As Most-Watched Broadcast Network, Setting Record Winning Streak
CBS is once again looking to finish out the broadcast season on top.
The broadcaster is currently averaging 5.59M viewers per night in primetime, according to live + 7-day Nielsen data.
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That sets it up to be the most-watched broadcast network for the 16th consecutive season, setting a winning streak record that CBS already held for a 15-season stretch from 1955 to 1970.
By comparison, NBC is currently averaging 5.01M viewers, while ABC is hovering around 4.29M viewers. Fox sits at 3.35M.
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CBS’ win is aided heavily by Tracker, which launched in February to become the most-watched primetime series of the broadcast season. The network holds 13 of the 20 most-watched broadcast series this season, also including NCIS, Young Sheldon, FBI, Ghosts, The Neighborhood, and Bob Hearts Abishola.
According to Paramount, since the new season premiered in February, CBS is up 11% versus last year in primetime multi-platform 35-day viewing. That’s only taking into account the viewing that occurred last year in that same time frame.
In the 35-day window, Tracker also stands above the rest with a whopping 20.4M viewers per episode. Young Sheldon and NCIS are each averaging 12.9M viewers, while Ghosts is managing 11.9M.
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Overall, the network is averaging around 10.1M viewers throughout the season after 35 days of viewing.
CBS also touted its performance across the TV season in terms of minutes viewed. As of April 21, the network had generated about 456B viewing minutes this calendar year from CBS entertainment, news and sports programming across the Network, Paramount+, Pluto TV and the CBS app.
The viewing measurement uses Nielsen’s “most current” data for all content, which includes 35-day windows where possible. The data for the broadcast networks doesn’t include multi-platform viewing because CBS doesn’t have access to its competitors internal data. The CBS number does include any live streaming on Paramount+.
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That means CBS is up 5.8% from the viewership the network generated in the same time period last year.
That is aided by stalwart series like the NCIS franchise, which generated 76B minutes all on its own. Sports are also a huge factor. The NFL postseason alone, including Super Bowl LVIII, raked in 61B minutes viewed.
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