The prominence of live sports in viewing habits was highlighted as Variety's yearly review demonstrated sports filling 75 of 100 of most watched prime time telecasts increasing over 2023 total by a noticeable amount. NFL games took a substantial portion of spots with 45 out of the 100 followed closely behind by nineteen installments of Paris Summer Olympics events as well as four out of five NBA finals plus all five of the World Series events. Netflix and other streaming services now clearly wish to capitalize on the attraction that live sports have with viewership.
World Series Returns as Major Draw: NCAA Women's Basketball Finals Outperform Men's Championship Viewership on Broadcast
The 2024 World Series came back after absence from the prior list with Los Angeles Dodgers competing with New York Yankees which drew huge audience engagement. A first within this data set, NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship made it onto the list however NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship failed to register on list of top viewed programming events. The NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship secured 18.87 million views while the men’s game attained 14.82 million views with those final games being broadcast through different outlets therefore the numbers would greatly increase if viewership was totaled across networks.
Presidential Debate in September Attracts Massive Viewership Figures Across Multiple Broadcasting Outlets
The US presidential election had some measurable impact with a September 10th ABC hosted debate securing over 20.3 million views with multiple networks simulcasting the event reaching an estimated 67.1 million. The estimated total for Presidential debate event is the second most watched event of year only following Super Bowl viewership demonstrating that despite a move towards streaming there remains significant appeal for mass network broadcasting in terms of political and public appeal. This September 10th event proves major broadcasting still brings much larger reach even in this period of large streaming viewership
CBS's Tracker Emerges as an Entertainment Hit with Network TV Retaining Primetime Power
CBS show "Tracker" earned 15 of the limited available prime time spots following NFL and the Olympics. The Eye Network showed a great year due to the massive popularity of Tracker with many of its slots following four editions of show “60 Minutes” plus two final shows of “Young Sheldon” . While some major networks such as ABC NBC and CBS have lost some ground to growing streaming services the viewership indicates primetime remains impactful on the network television format with special events remaining top drawing elements for each show or network.
Awards Shows Experience Increased Viewership with Oscars and Grammys Showing Growth Over Prior Years
Both The Oscars award ceremony broadcasted on March 10 and The Grammys showed continued viewership growth as popular entertainment specials and award shows within their broadcasted platforms. 20.2 million individuals watched “Oppenheimer” take Best Picture award during the broadcast which was a marked increase compared to 19.4 million in 2023 and 17.6 million in 2022 for The Oscars event. The Grammys audience went up to 18.1 million in 2024 from 13.4 million in 2023 and 10.2 million in 2022 The Grammys even exceeded the The Oscars event in younger adults viewership within the 18-49 year age bracket as popular entertainment events remain impactful on network tv platforms.
NBC Leads Networks in Total Spots Followed By CBS While Streaming Outlets Gain Measurable Presence
NBC secured a higher number of slots on list totalling 38 compared to their 24 last year mostly because of primetime Sunday Night Football and also due to the coverage for many nights at the Summer Olympics that was held in Paris during this yearly cycle. CBS followed NBC closely behind with 25 spots which is also notable in list of highest viewed events followed by ABC at 12 spots as the big three of network broadcasting remained consistently competitive. Prime Video took 10 spots, Fox earned nine spots, ESPN took five slots and Fox News had one. The measurable data demonstrates how various broadcasting and streaming companies show diverse preferences in what type of content has popularity.
The ratings information for this yearly report of most viewed prime time telecasts was based upon Live+7 ratings using network and cable statistics providing the best measurements of viewing in total and by age range specifically for the 18-49 demographics. Previous yearly results are available for 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 allowing analysis to track trends over extended viewing periods. This historical record has consistently shown high level viewing across sporting and political events for mass public entertainment.
Linear TV Rankings Indicate News Channels Perform Well During Election Year Alongside Big Network Shows
IndieWire analyzed and ranked 153 linear TV channels including NBC to Hogar de HGTV using total viewer ratings for 2024 which followed up on a trend seen in 2023 data indicating consistency across broadcast preferences. NBC had 4.428 million viewers per night on average as opposed to Hogar de HGTV’s average at just 1000 viewers across primetime programming for the year as measured with Nielsen ratings data. The measurement is solely using Nielsen’s Live+Same Day ratings during prime time including 8 to 11PM which excludes all streaming information.
Fox News Ranks Higher than Broadcast Network While the Big Three Retain Top Network Spots
Fox News took the number four spot as result of the heavy attention of presidential election news outpacing even the broadcast network from Fox while CNN jumped from twentieth in 2023 to thirteenth in current period MSNBC saw marginal one position increase on the list. NBC CBS and ABC network broadcasts again took the top three positions and all remain in this specific order where many network broadcast channels benefit from sporting live event broadcast and also from award shows. Broadcast television still programs a large percentage of its airtime to new programming especially during prime time as this continues to remain appealing for large number of households across North American area where a mix of families use various TV watching strategies during the week. Network television including many sports or popular television shows remains free content that often requires no difficult installation like a simple TV antenna providing very easy access to large number of viewers.
ESPN had around 1.703 million views and TNT averaged 813000 viewers demonstrating the continued prominence of big broadcast sports on tv screens. This information was compiled between January 1 2024 to December 11 2024 demonstrating the yearly data range.