For the first time in a very, very long time, no broadcast drama or comedy broke the 10-million viewer mark in Nielsen’s season-long ratings.
Only two primetime NFL showcases — NBC’s weekly Sunday Night Football (18.14 million viewers) and ABC’s four Monday Night Football telecasts (10.46 million) — got into double-digit millions of viewers for the 2022-23 season. That’s according to final seven-day Nielsen ratings for the 2022-23 season, which wrapped on May 24.
Similarly, the number of shows that managed a 1.0 rating or better in the key ad-sales demographic of adults 18-49 fell precipitously: Where two dozen shows (not including live sports) hit that mark in 2021-22, only three non-football series did this year: CBS’ Survivor (1.04), Fox’s 911 (1.0) and NBC’s Chicago PD (1.0). Chicago Fire is just below that threshold at 0.99.
After football, CBS’ NCIS is the most-watched show on the broadcast networks with 9.86 million viewers; the network has eight of the 10 most watched series (again, excluding sports) for the season.
Where did those missing viewers go? Partly to streaming, which isn’t measured in Nielsen’s seven-day ratings but can pad a show’s audience by 30 percent or more for scripted series over the course of a week. CBS, for instance, claimed seven shows with at least 10 million cross-platform viewers and five with 11 million or more.
Viewers under 50 are also more likely to stream shows vs. watching them live or via a DVR, which means a number of other series likely crossed the Mulaney Line (so named for John Mulaney’s short-lived 2014 Fox sitcom, back when a 1.0 rating was a likely death knell) with the cross-platform boost.
Of the 132 network series that aired during 2022-23 (excluding sports pre- and post-game shows, specials and shows that mainly ran during the summer), 15 managed total viewer gains from a season ago. Only five grew their 18-49 ratings, and six others were even in the key demo.
Seven-day Nielsen ratings for the 2022-23 season are below.
