For the 12th year in a row, and 17 out of the last 18, CBS is the most-watched network on television. Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Better Call Saul get all the internet attention, but in the real world, where your grandparents reside, the titans of TV are NCIS (15.3 million viewers/episode), FBI (12.5 million), and Young Sheldon (11.4 million). The Big Bang Theory spin-off is the top-rated comedy, while a show you, a young person, actually watched, The Good Place, is down at #100 with 3.5 million.
The top 10 goes:
1. NFL Sunday Night Football (NBC) 19.9 million
2. NCIS (CBS) 15.3 milion
3. NFL Thursday Night Football (Fox/NFL Network) 15 million
4. NFL Monday Night Football (ESPN) 12.7 million
5. FBI (CBS) 12.5 million
6. Blue Bloods (CBS) 11.9 million
7. Chicago Fire (NBC) 11.6 million
8. This Is Us (NBC) 11.5 million
9. Young Sheldon (CBS) 11.4 million
10. Chicago PD (NBC) 11.2 million
(That’s by total viewers. If you sort by the key 18-to-49 demographic, it’s football in the top three spots, followed by The Masked Singer, The Last Dance, This Is Us, The Bachelor, Grey’s Anatomy, 9-1-1, Chicago P.D., and The Walking Dead. Slightly better?)
Here’s a fun game: how many of the 100 most-watched shows on TV do you watch? Not including football, and with all due respect to the anonymously popular God Friended Me, Bob Hearts Abishola, Bluff City Law, Curse of Oak Island, and Council of Dads (have you heard of Council of Dads? I have not), I’m at six. Someone remind me to binge all of NCIS: New Orleans (#22), so I have something to talk about with my family this Thanksgiving. I draw the line at Ellen’s Game of Games (#72), though.
And if you sort by network:
1. CBS (7,676,000; down 14%)
2. NBC (6,628,000; down 9%)
3. Fox (6,391,000; up 17%)
4. ABC (5,458,000; down 3%)
5. Univision (1,461,000; up 6%)
6. Ion (1,282,000; down 2%)
7. Telemundo (1,107,000; down 8%)
8. The CW (1,040,000; down 22%)
9. Me TV (740,000; up 5%)
10. Unimas (523,000; up 40%)
Shoutout to Me TV, the home of “classic television,” including The Andy Griffith Show, The Flintstones, and Petticoat Junction. I hope Gomer Pyle slaughters Young Sheldon in the ratings for the 2020-2021 season. For the full ratings list, click here.
Source: https://uproxx.com/tv/most-watched-shows-2019-2020/