NBC Wins September-to-May Season in TV Ratings, Its 5th in 6 Years
With three nights left to count, NBC is poised to win its third-straight September-to-May season in TV ratings — its fifth victory in six years. CBS will pretty comfortably take the traditional Nielsen season in terms of total viewers.
NBC’s win in the demo is pretty impressive considering that it didn’t have the Super Bowl, “Thursday Night Football” and the Winter Olympics over the 2018-19 TV season, all of which belonged to the broadcast network over the 2017-18 span. Meanwhile, CBS aired the big game and the series finale of its long-running ratings star “The Big Bang Theory,” but also lost “TNF,” which it previously shared with the “This Is Us” network.
Ahead of the traditional TV season’s end this week, NBC is averaging a 1.6 rating in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic, coming first against CBS and Fox’s tie for second place, ABC in fourth with a 1.2 and The CW bringing up the rear with a 0.4, according to the “most current” averages from Nielsen.
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When it comes to the overall-eyeballs race, CBS reigns supreme for its 11th straight season (and 16th out of 17) with an average of 8.9 million total viewers. NBC comes in second, scoring 7.2 million viewers, ABC in third with 5.6 million, Fox close behind with 5.4 million and The CW in fifth place with 1.3 million.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was once-again TV’s top show in the key demo, averaging a 6.1 rating. Fox’s “Thursday Night Football” (which, as we said before, aired on both CBS and NBC during the 2017-18 season) came in second with a gaudy 4.4 rating. NBC’s “SNF” pre-game show was in third with a 4.0 rating. That same network’s “This Is Us” is tied for fourth place with Fox’s freshman singing competition “The Masked Singer,” both with a 3.8 rating. The final season of CBS’ “Big Bang Theory” is in sixth with a 3.6.
In total viewers, “SNF” is currently No. 1 with 19.3 million viewers versus “Big Bang Theory’s” 17.3 million. “NCIS” is averaging 15.6 million viewers, while Fox’s “TNF” drew 14.42 million. CBS’ “Young Sheldon” ranks next, with 14.37 million viewers, and then “This Is Us,” with 13.8 million.
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Below are the raw by-network Nielsen stats through 34 completed weeks. Readers can see how the 2017-18 TV season race went here.
Adult 18-49 Rating
NBC…1.6
CBS…1.5
Fox…1.5
ABC…1.2
CW…0.4
The last time NBC did not win the September-to-May season in the key demo was back in 2015-16, when CBS had the Super Bowl.
Total Viewers
CBS…8.9 million
NBC…7.2 million
ABC…5.6 million
Fox…5.4 million
CW…1.3 million
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