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TV Ratings

Broadcast, Cable Edge Back Over Half of TV Use in August

After slipping below half of all TV use in July, cable and broadcast networks moved back above that threshold in August. Streaming, meanwhile, had its first dip (albeit a small one) in five months. Linear TV outlets slipped to 49.6 percent of viewing in July, the first time since Nielsen began releasing its monthly Gauge […]

TV Ratings: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Hits Amazon High

Thursday Night Football scored its biggest audience since moving to streaming with its opening game of the 2023 season. The Philadelphia Eagles’ 34-28 win over the Minnesota Vikings averaged 15.05 million viewers on Amazon’s Prime Video and local broadcast outlets in the teams’ home markets, according to Nielsen. That’s the largest audience, by about 2 […]

‘Suits’ Runs Streaming No. 1 Streak to Nine Weeks

Suits extended one streak on the streaming TV charts for Aug. 14-20, but another one came to a close. The legal drama, which streams on Netflix and Peacock, was the top title in Nielsen’s weekly rankings for the ninth consecutive week. It more than doubled the viewing time total of its the second-place show, Netflix’s […]

TV Ratings: VMAs Rise in Cross-Platform Viewing, Steady on Air

After a couple of relatively lean years for on-air viewing, the MTV Video Music Awards were relatively steady Tuesday. The show’s cross-platform consumption, however, improved on last year. Final same-day Nielsen ratings have the show drawing 913,000 viewers on MTV, a 29.5 percent jump from 705,000 for the 2022 VMAs (and also slightly above the […]

TV Ratings: NFL Delivers Much Needed Boost to Broadcasters on Opening Weekend

The biggest game(s) on linear TV returned over the weekend, with the NFL opening its season to big audiences. Thursday’s season kickoff NBC, a full slate of games on Sunday and Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC delivered viewership on par with the start of the 2022 season. The seven broadcast windows from Thursday […]

‘Only Murders in the Building’ Hits High on Streaming Charts

The third-season premiere of Only Murders in the Building pushed the comedy to its best showing yet on the streaming charts. Suits continued its dominant summer, setting a record for the most consecutive weeks with more than 3 billion minutes of viewing time. Only Murders in the Building opened its third season on Hulu on […]

Nielsen, Under Pressure From TV Broadcasters, Delays Plan to Use Amazon Data In NFL Ratings

Nielsen is walking back — but not abandoning — a plan to use first-party streaming data for live streaming telecasts. s The decision will most immediately affect Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video. Nielsen had been planning to incorporate some data from Amazon with its national panel ratings for the primetime NFL games this season (the […]

Why Three Shows Always Dominate the Streaming Charts, Even Amid Peak TV

Somewhere in the United States, someone is probably watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy right now, or if not, an installment NCIS. Someone under age 7 is likely streaming Cocomelon. Nielsen began releasing its weekly streaming charts three years ago, and in the 157 weeks since then, those three series have made the rankings more […]

‘Hijack’ Becomes Second Apple Series to Make Streaming Charts

Apple TV+ placed its second series ever in the streaming rankings, with Hijack claiming a spot for the week of July 31-Aug. 6. Suits dominated the overall rankings again, and The Lincoln Lawyer shot back up with the release of more episodes. Hijack recorded 357 million minutes of viewing time for the week its finale […]

Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ Nielsen Ratings Are Under Fire

Nielsen and an industry trade group are at odds over the former’s plan to fold in Amazon viewer data to ratings for the coming season of Thursday Night Football. The ratings service is planning to incorporate some first-party data from Amazon into its national panel ratings for the 2023 season. Last year, Amazon and Nielsen […]

‘Ahsoka’ Premiere Draws Big Audience, Disney+ Says

Disney+ is breaking with its usual practice to share some (strong) viewing numbers for the premiere of its latest Star Wars series, Ahsoka. According to the streamer, the first episode of the series, starring Rosario Dawson as the titular Jedi, has racked up 14 million views worldwide in the five days after its Aug. 23 […]

‘Futurama’ Hits Streaming Chart With Hulu Revival

The return of Futurama found a place on the streaming charts for the final week of July. Suits spent another week as the overall No. 1, though it declined (slightly) for the first time since it hit the charts in late June. Futurama’s revival on Hulu (along with the rest of its catalog) delivered 506 […]