TV Ratings: NBC Opens 2024-25 Season in First Place
A strong Sunday Night Football game and good showings from several of its long-running series helped NBC claim the biggest audience for week one of the 2024-25 season.
The network averaged 6.2 million viewers in primetime for the week of Sept. 23-29, according to same-day Nielsen figures (which don’t include streaming or other delayed viewing). NBC has topped the opening week of the season in total viewers for six straight years and for 13 in a row among adults 18-49.
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ABC finished second for the week with 5.4 million viewers, aided by two big sports telecasts (Monday Night Football and its Saturday primetime college football game) followed by CBS (3.3 million) and Fox (1.8 million).
There’s a bit of a caveat here, however, in that CBS is waiting until mid-October to roll out much of its lineup. Sunday Night Football would likely keep NBC on top anyway — see the six-year premiere week winning streak, above — but the margins would likely be smaller. CBS has won 16 straight September-to-May seasons in total viewers.
Even without the NFL, NBC still ended up on top of premiere week: Measuring just entertainment programming, it averaged 4.2 million viewers, again leading CBS (2.9 million), ABC (2.8 million) and Fox (1.8 million). NBC had six of the 10 most-watched non-sports shows of the week, led by season premieres of The Voice (5.96 million viewers) and Chicago Fire (5.6 million) and the season finale of America’s Got Talent (5.46 million), which ranked second, third and fourth for the week. CBS’ 60 Minutes was first with 9.57 million viewers.
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