TV ratings ain’t what they used to be. In 1994, the highest-rated scripted series on TV was Seinfeld, which averaged over 30 million episodes. Thirty years later, TV’s biggest non-sports show barely gets 10 million viewers — and that’s with a Super Bowl-assisted bump.
With data provided by Nielsen, Variety shared the list of the 100 most-watched TV shows of the 2023-2024 season. NBC’s NFL Sunday Night Football is number one for the sixth year in a row with 19.8 million total viewers, followed by ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football, and Amazon Prime’s NFL Thursday Night Football. Finally, at number four, comes the first scripted series: CBS’ Reacher-lite action-drama Tracker with 10.7 million.
According to Variety, it’s the “first time a first-year TV series was ranked as the No. 1 show since Survivor premiered as an instant phenomenon in 2000,” although that’s partially due to Tracker premiering after the most-watched TV event in decades. The Taylor Swift Effect can be felt in unexpected places.
Here’s the top 10 for total viewers:
1. NFL Sunday Night Football (NBC) (19.8 million)
2. NFL Monday Night Football on ABC (ABC) (11.9 million)
3. NFL Thursday Night Football (Amazon Prime) (11.9 million)
4. Tracker (CBS) (10.7 million)
5. NCIS (CBS) (9.6 million)
6. Young Sheldon (CBS) (9.1 million)
7. FBI (CBS) (8.9 million)
8. Chicago Fire (NBC) (8.7 million)
9. Blue Bloods (CBS) (8.4 million)
10. 60 Minutes (CBS) (8.2 million)
The full top 100 list can be found here. How many shows do you watch? Or better yet: how many shows have you even heard of? You can’t convince me that 2.5 million people watch something called Farmer Wants a Wife every week. It’s simply impossible.
(Via Variety)