In 2026 alone, Netflix’s live event roster includes the concert livestream “BTS: The Comeback Live – Arirang,” “Skyscraper Live,” the Baseball World Classic as well as several WWE events and its weekly Monday Night Raw installments, with the streamer also gearing up to move into MMA with a fight between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano on May 16. That’s coming off of the streamer’s annual NFL Christmas Day games, whose halftime show was headlined by Snoop Dogg.

The events have drawn impressive viewership, with the World Baseball Classic games reaching 31.4 million viewers — the most streamed baseball game ever — while the BTS concert scored 18.4 million global viewers and “Skyscraper Live” brought in 6.2 million views.

By being selective about what it streams live, it’s taking a weakness and turning it into a strength. Netflix has shown a reluctance to commit to any of the major leagues, meaning it doesn’t have the wide array of live programming that a Peacock or Paramount+ may have with its various sports deals. But the secret sauce for Netflix’s live event strategy lies in its choosiness, making the events it does put on all the more high profile and exclusive to keep audiences engaged.

“It creates these sort of tentpoles that happen on a regular basis that are interesting and that aren’t available elsewhere, and give people that reason … pay for one more month of Netflix, because there’s either something interesting happening now or it just creates that general background feeling that more interesting stuff will be coming out in the future,” Hub Entertainment Research founder Jon Giegengack told TheWrap.

Take Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games. The first iteration in 2024 emulated a Super Bowl halftime show with Beyoncé Bowl, whose performance alone drew 27 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The streamer followed it up with a handful of guest performances alongside Snoop Dogg for the 2025 games, which scored an average of 29 million viewers.

It seems likely that Netflix will stick to its annual NFL games, with Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria telling press during the Next on Netflix event in March the Christmas Day games have worked well for both sides, though they’re open to considering various packages and games. “We’re always going to have the conversation with them about that, always evaluating, is that the right game or the right moment for us to do?”

“I think the strategy of [the] event game on Christmas, and obviously what we did with it, as far as adding Beyoncé Bowl, and then Snoop and doing some more bells and whistles around the NFL Christmas Day … has been an amazing partnership with them,” Bajaria said. “We really love the strategy of doing these Christmas Day games with them, and that’s worked well for us and for them.”

While that might be true, it’s important to note that boasting this strategy is in Netflix’s best interest, given it doesn’t hold season-wide rights. It does, however, hold the rights to WWE’s library of live events for just over a year, whose events tallied 525 million hours of viewing in 2025. Monday Night Raw accounted for nearly 340 million views while 185 million views were tallied by premium live wrestling events broadcast outside of the U.S. like SmackDown, WrestleMania, Elimination Chamber, Money in the Bank, Night of Champions and Royal Rumble.

Beyond that partnership, Giegengack predicts the streamer will keep going for variety in its live programming by selecting “periodic attention-grabbing cultural moments that sit on top of the giant library that Netflix has.”

“It gives off a feeling that Netflix is fresh, and there’s always something new … but because of the volume of scripted content that’s there, I think it’s easier to get that feeling,” he said.

“Love Story” ends with a bang

FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” ended with a ratings bang, soaring nearly 20% ahead of the prior week’s episode and 90% over the series premiere after its first day of streaming.

The finale also boosted viewership of the premiere episode, which added more than one million views on Hulu and Disney+ since the finale’s launch to reach over 14 million multi-platform views across FX, Hulu and Disney+.

“XO, Kitty” debuts strong

The third season of “XO, Kitty” made a splash on Netflix as it debuted as the streamer’s top English-language TV show for the week of March 30 with 12.9 million views. Viewership for the “To All the Boys” spinoff series outpaced “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” with 6.9 million views, “The Predator of Seville” with 4.7 million views and “One Piece” Season 2 with 3.5 million views.

“Top Chef” cooks

Following its pre-air debut on Peacock, the “Top Chef” Season 23 launch has tallied 2.4 million total viewers across platforms after one week of viewing on linear and two weeks of viewing on Peacock. Not only did the launch rise 53% over its Season 22 premiere in a comparable time frame, it also ranks as the top cooking reality season or series premieres across streaming in 2026 to date, based on Nielsen data. 

“Top Chef” also benefitted from NBCUniversal’s reality universe, with 65% of first time viewers having tuned in to “The Traitors” season 4, which featured “Top Chef” host Kristen Kish.  

Nielsen streaming spotlight

Nielsen’s top 10 streaming list saw several originals make their mark with debuts during the week of March 2, including “Young Sherlock,” which tallied 678 million minutes on Prime Video for its binge release and “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” which kicked off its second season with 467 million minutes on Apple TV. Hulu’s “Paradise” also made it into the top 5 original titles for the week with 694 million viewing minutes as it shifted to a weekly release after its initial 3-episode drop.

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• The “Paradise” Season 2 finale scored season-high viewership for the Dan Fogelman-created series with 4.3 million views in three days
• The historic launch of Artemis II drew an audience of over 18 million viewers as it aired across ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, CNN, FOX News Channel and MS NOW before handing the baton to the streamers for the lunar flyby. There is not yet data for how the flyby performed across Netflix and the other streamers.
• “The View” closed out its first quarter with the strongest overall performance the daytime talk show has seen in five years

The post Inside Netflix’s Winning Approach to Live Programming appeared first on TheWrap.

After its celebrity-filled Season 2 broke through as a cultural phenomenon, the following two installments grew in viewership, with Season 4 skyrocketing 72% when compared to Season 3, according to first-party data from Peacock. All together, “The Traitors” tallied 6.4 billion minutes viewed on Peacock since the Season 4 launch, according to Nielsen viewing numbers from the Jan. 8 premiere through March 8.

“Traitors” stands out amid the broader unscripted landscape because of that increase, according to Dave Kaplan, NBCUniversal’s EVP of content analytics and measurement. “You look at two or three dozen [unscripted] shows across the landscape, the vast majority of them are either stable or down in their early seasons after launching,” he said.

“‘Traitors’ has definitively bucked that trend,” Kaplan added. “Since Season 1, we’ve seen an upward trajectory in terms of its performance every season, including in the most recent fourth season, so it really is charting a path that we do not typically see in terms of new unscripted shows.”

“The Traitors” is enjoying a similar bounce to Peacock’s “Love Island USA,” which saw ratings growth in its seventh season after breaking out in its sixth, which Kaplan noted reflects both an influx of Peacock subscribers as well as increased engagement from existing subscribers with each new season. In fact, 43% of viewers for “The Traitors” Season 4 were first-time viewers of any “Traitors” title.

“We’re galvanizing our existing base, but we’re also growing it from new users, meaning people that are coming in and signing up for Peacock for the first time to watch these shows,” Kaplan said.

What’s fueling that growth for both series, beyond enticing casting, is Peacock’s appointment TV strategy, which was embraced for “Love Island” with a daily release schedule — which Kaplan noted created a “ritualistic behavior” — while “The Traitors” dropped new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. Appointment viewing for “The Traitors,” which is counted as the number of people watching right at the time the new episode drops, saw a steady progression throughout the season, with anticipation — and the fear of spoilers — mounting in the lead-up to the finale.

The appointment TV strategy goes hand-in-hand with weekly watch parties, “The Traitors” ranking as Peacock’s No. 1 unscripted title for co-viewership with 56% of season 4’s audience watching with someone else.

This bucks the trend of most people watching shows on their own schedules now, opting to stream new episodes hours or even days after they premiere, or even waiting until a full season is out to binge-watch it. But “The Traitors” leveraged the urgency surrounding its twists and turns to train its audience to watch live, which in turn has been a boon for Peacock.

“There was really this moment in time that they wanted to experience alongside other people, whether that was in the room with them,” Kaplan said. “They were coming together at a very specific time to experience and discuss the show together, and I think people wanted to be able to talk about it on social … but not have anything revealed … I think, drove this more urgent tune-in effect.”

Notably, “The Traitors” Season 4 has tallied 366 million video views across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X since its launch.

After “The Traitors” Season 4 dropped its first three episodes on Jan. 8, the show scored 790 million minutes during the week of Jan. 5, per Nielsen, marking a new weekly viewership high for the series, that was quickly broken the following week with 892 million minutes.

Viewership slowed down across the subsequent weeks, but scored another weekly high with the debut of the finale and the reunion on Feb. 26, which delivered
913 million minutes during the week of Feb. 23.

As overall viewership grew, so did appointment viewing, with Kaplan noting appointment viewing for Season 4 doubled from the launch through the finale. “That kind of appointment viewing pattern not only grew within the season, but it also grew versus prior seasons as well,” he said. “I think the show just increasingly has become a little bit more of a cultural touch point for audiences.”

Beyond “The Traitors” itself, the competition series drove viewers to other Peacock series that feature “Traitors” contestants, with “Top Chef” seeing an influx of new viewers after seeing Kristen Kish on the show.

“It’s not an accident that we’ve created this flywheel within the Peacock platform that really helps to extend the fandom across assets and across shows,” Kaplan said, noting the familiar Bravo talent helped make “The Traitors” an “easy” entry point for viewers. “We definitely see it working in both directions.”

While the crossover trick for reality stars has been noted as a surefire way to bring in impressive ratings, Kaplan notes the importance of stoking the fandom via social content or other content to not only drive engagement between episodes, but increase “holistic” interest in the show itself.

Opening Day scores out of the ballpark

The MLB’s opening day saw several platforms hit their ratings out of the ballpark, including NBCUniversal, whose two-game presentation delivered the largest MLB Opening Day audience on record for a multi-game presentation by a single network with an average 2.7 million viewers across NBC and Peacock.

Netflix’s opening day scored an estimated average minute audience (AMA) of 3 million US viewers, whereas Fox’s two-game slate scored 2.59 million viewers, marking the network’s best season-opening telecast since 2021.

“Outlander” final season debuts strong

 The debut of “Outlander” Season 8 scored 3 million multiplatform viewers in its premiere week, marking a four-year series high and securing the top spot for the week among all scripted cable programs.

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• “The Madison” scored the biggest first season launch that a Taylor Sheridan series has ever seen.
• “CBS Evening News” dipped below 4 million viewers months after its rocky relaunch.
• The “Hannah Montana” 20th anniversary special climbed to 6.3 million views in three days on Disney+ and Hulu.
• “Fallout” Season 2 reached 83 million viewers globally in first 91 days.
• The “Peaky Blinders” movie remained atop Netflix’s top 10 movies list with 19.4 million views in its second week.

The post Appointment TV Isn’t Dead Yet: How ‘The Traitors’ Scored Its Biggest Ratings in Season 4 appeared first on TheWrap.

But let’s start at the beginning. Whispers of concerns began in early March as Nielsen prepared to include new data from the Advertising Research Foundation in its monthly Gauge reports, a snapshot of the state of the TV industry and how viewing is distributed among streaming platforms like YouTube, Netflix and Disney+ and the linear networks.

The ARF’s DASH survey, which is conducted in partnership with the polling firm NORC and accredited by the Media Rating Council, captures information from every television in a single home, accounts for video-capable mobile devices and collects data on both individual and co-viewing behaviors.

But rather than concerns regarding the new methodology itself, the uproar began when Nielsen gave its clients a heads up that the new data would result in a viewership lift for cable and broadcast networks and a decline for streaming in the month of February. Given that the shift would break the narrative of streaming’s domination, the streamers expressed concerns with the results and got the company to delay inclusion of its most-up to date data — isolating its linear-focused clients in the process.

The controversy illustrates the difficult position Nielsen found itself in — while the data measurement company appeased streamers who sounded alarm bells at the prospect of not seeing streaming dominate over linear, the delay of using its most accurate viewership source has caused consternation across the TV industry. It also shows the influence of The Gauge, which serves as a temperature check on the state of the industry and is regularly covered by news organizations, including TheWrap.

No matter what it did, Nielsen seemed to make matters worse. The concerns from streamers prompted the firm to delay the release of the February report by one week to March 24, explaining in a statement that while the change was communicated to clients in product notifications, webinars and MRC meetings, “some clients requested additional data around DASH implementation” that they would provide.

That delay wasn’t enough. By March 20, Nielsen notified clients that it would be further pushing back both its the Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge reports until April as it reversed course on the new methodology rollout and paused it until the fall — aligning with its “additional promised improvements to our currency products.”

Citing the decision as an effort to “minimize trend breaks,” a letter from Nielsen’s chief client officer Peter Naylor to clients acknowledged, “We understand that there are diverging opinions on this among our broad client base, but we believe this is the best and least disruptive path for the industry.”

In the letter, Naylor said the Nielsen team”regret[ted]” not giving clients more of a heads up about the impact that adding this dataset would have on the public Gauge report.

While the delay to fall seems to have appeased the streamers, Sean Cunningham, president and CEO of the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), called out the delays as “indefensible manipulations that run completely counter to the role of a fair and neutral measurement and currency data provider,” suggesting the delay both “cheerleads” a “YouTube boom/TV gloom” as well as “interference in markets.”

Though public criticisms have been limited to the VAB, patience seems to be thin on the linear side, which would’ve benefitted from the additional data.

Nielsen quickly clapped back, noting that the VAB membership “includes Nielsen’s competitors and a subset of the ad-supported video industry.” More importantly, the company clarified that the data inclusion is already a part of Nielsen’s paid reports to clients as of February and the pause is only for the Gauge, which is not used by the ad industry.

While the pause to the rollout of the Gauge delayed the inevitable downtick for streaming, it also ensured that the new methodology is not seen on the Gauge from February through July, meaning that tallies for some of the year’s biggest TV events — including the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics — won’t include the most up to date data — especially regarding linear viewership, potentially crafting tension among the broadcast and cable community.

BTS live Netflix show thrives

“BTS The Comeback Live: Arirang” scored 18.4 million global viewers, according to live-plus-one-day numbers from Netflix first party data. The show tallied 13.1 million views during the week of March 16, jumping to the top of Netflix’s most-watched non-English shows list for the week.

“Peaky Blinders” movie scores impressive debut

Also landing atop Netflix’s most-watched lists was “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” which scored 25.3 million views during the week of March 16. The movie landed above “War Machine,” which came in the No. 2 spot with 18 million views.

Future Today hits streaming milestone

Future Today, which owns Fawesome, HappyKids and iFood.tv, reported impressive growth at the IAB NewFronts with its channels reaching more than 75 million U.S. households and delivering over 2 billion monthly impressions, driving more than 850 million hours of viewing annually.

The post The Fight Over Nielsen’s Gauge Measurement Changes Goes Beyond Frustrated Streamers appeared first on TheWrap.

The drop marked a reversal of last year’s Academy Awards, which reached nearly 20 million viewers and brought in the biggest audience in five years as “Anora” took home Best Picture. The 2026 show saw the Oscars shed 9% of its audience as it hit 17.86 million viewers across ABC and Hulu, despite the fact that fan-favorite films like “Sinners” and “KPop Demon Hunters” were nominated (and eventually won). The 98th Academy Awards dipped to its lowest viewership since 2022, which brought in 16.7 million viewers as the Oscars rebounded from its 2020 record, and is about half the size of the audience a decade ago.

Many noted that the extreme lateness of this year’s Oscars may have caused fatigue, and thus less interest, in this year’s telecast. It aired in mid-March compared to last year’s telecast on March 2, but even last year’s ceremony was considered late in the calendar in contrast to the show’s traditional late February slot.

The Oscars have company with its fall in viewership, with the Golden Globes dipping 7% from last year to 8.66 million viewers and ending its two years of consecutive growth, while the Grammys saw a 6.4% decrease to 14.41 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+, down two years in a row. It’s a mirror of last year’s awards ratings, which saw every show grow, with the exception of the Grammys.

This year’s awards shows faced difficult comparisons because they didn’t benefit from the boost in attention a year ago in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025, with the Grammys airing just weeks after the tragedy, and every show paying some sort of tribute to those affected. The overall declines speak to the tricky task of keeping an audience’s attention through long awards ceremonies, which often stretch past the three-hour mark.

Bucking the trend was the 2025 Emmys, which occupy an awkward placement but will be counted in the 2026 awards season for this story’s purposes. In September, the Emmys saw its audience grow 8% to reach its most-watched ceremony since 2021 with 7.42 million viewers, continuing to rebound after it hit a record low of 4.3 million viewers for its strike-delayed show in January 2024. With another Emmys just six months later in September 2024 — which notably grew to reach 6.87 million viewers — the year break before the September 2025 show might’ve given viewers a moment to breathe and enjoy TV’s biggest night again.

Some smaller awards ceremonies took the baton from the Emmys, and that momentum continued when the Critics Choice Awards kicked off the bulk of awards season in January as the show more than doubled its linear audience to reach 726,000 viewers across E! And USA Network. That growth, however, can easily be attributed to the expansion of the show’s airing from just E! to include its fellow Versant-owned network.

Next up was the Actor Awards, which Netflix did not report specific viewing numbers for, nor did they show up on streamer’s top 10 TV list for the week of their airing, meaning that we’ll have to wait for the semi-annual transparency report to see how they stacked up against last year.

While the major awards shows have adjusted to an established streaming arm in addition to their linear homes, the question is no longer how to meet viewers where they’re at, but instead to entice them, with the Oscars producers teasing a “page turning” in a press conference as the ceremony nears its 100th anniversary in 2028.

There’s change afoot for that new chapter, as the Oscars gears up for the move to YouTube in 2029. And the Oscars won’t be the only show entering a new era soon, with the Grammys transitioning over to Disney from CBS next year.

CBS premiere week thrives

The return of the majority of CBS’ slate for its mid-season premiere week in late February saw the Paramount-owned network score the top three most-watched broadcast series, according to multiplatform live-plus-seven-day figures from Nielsen. Among those top three were “Marshals,” which led all broadcast series with 20.6 million viewers for the week, with “Tracker” and “Survivor” following behind in second and third place, respectively.

Likewise, CBS was home to the top four new series, with “CIA,” “Sheriff Country” and “Blue Bloods” spinoff “Boston Blue” trailing behind “Marshals.”

World Baseball Classic grows

The World Baseball Classic has brought in solid viewership for Fox, with 3.17 million viewers tuning in to the four Team USA WBC Pool play games across Fox, FS1 and Fox Deportes, marking the team’s best showing and up 183% over the 2023 four-game average viewership for USA team viewership.

“The Pitt” soars

Well into its second season, “The Pitt” scored its highest rank on Nielsen’s top streaming lists as it notched 1.04 billion viewing minutes, coming in as the No. 2 streaming show during the week of Feb. 9, which aligns with the release of its sixth episode.

ICYMI

• “One Piece” scored a notable Season 2 debut, landing as the week’s most-watched Netflix TV series with 16.8 million views in its opening weekend, though shedding some viewers from last season.
• The Season 2 drop of “Cross” on Prime Video tallied 613 million minutes during the week of Feb. 9.
• Bill Lawrence’s new comedy “Rooster” debuted as HBO’s most-watched comedy premiere in the U.S. in over 10 years.
• “CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil” dropped below 4 million viewers months after the show’s rocky relaunch.

The post Oscars Led an Overall Decline in Awards Season Ratings — With One Exception appeared first on TheWrap.

That doesn’t seem to be the case for ABC, however, having ample spots in its 2026-27 broadcast season and only two pilots in consideration. The network began filling out its lineup with renewals for “Abbott Elementary,” “High Potential,” “9-1-1” and “9-1-1: Nashville,” which hold down varying spots on the ratings hierarchy.

The decisions, which started later than usual, leave several shows on the bubble, including “Will Trent,” “The Rookie,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Shifting Gears” and new series “RJ Decker” and “Scrubs,” though it’s expected that most all the series could make it to next year with the potential of trimmed budgets for some (more on that below).

Whereas NBC’s pilot revival puts the fate of some of its long-running shows into question, ABC only has two pilots in the works in Rachel Bloom’s “Do You Want Kids?” comedy and “The Rookie: North” drama, and neither show has been confirmed for the 2026-27 season. All that being said, ABC should have a fair amount of room in its slate to grant renewals to the majority of its lineup, and its renewed series represent shows on different ends of the ratings spectrum.

“High Potential” continues to be ABC’s shining star in its second season. The Kaitlin Olson-led series ranks as the No. 2 most-watched multiplatform broadcast show — behind only CBS’ “Tracker” — with 12.67 million viewers, according to multiplatform live-plus-seven-day Nielsen data through Feb. 15. 

While a renewal for “High Potential” was a sure bet, there are not one but two shows higher on the ratings totem pole than the “9-1-1” series that have yet to get the next season greenlight: “Will Trent” and long-running favorite “The Rookie.” “Will Trent” and “The Rookie” have averaged 9.44 million viewers and 9.1 million viewers, respectively season-to-date, while “9-1-1” averaged 7.82 million viewers and spinoff “9-1-1: Nashville” earned 6.85 million average viewers in its first season. Chances seem to look pretty good for “Will Trent” especially, given that the Ramón Rodríguez-led series ranks as the No. 4 most-watched multiplatform broadcast show, behind CBS’ “Matlock.”

The straggler among dramas is the beloved “Grey’s Anatomy,” which is averaging 5.64 million viewers in its 22nd season, the lowest viewership of ABC’s slate per multiplatform figures through mid-February. But the show remains a streaming juggernaut as fans rewatch across its more than 450 episodes and counting. “Grey’s,” ABC’s longest-running scripted primetime series, hasn’t been renewed for Season 23 yet, but there have been reports of conversations surrounding reduced budgets moving forward, including the possibility of a lower episode order than the standard 18 episodes established during the pandemic.

Though the same season-to-date numbers aren’t available for “RJ Decker,” which only premiered on March 3, debut ratings for the series place its viewership at 11.64 million viewers after six days of viewing across ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms. With its live-plus-same-day viewership of 3.69 million, “RJ Decker” scored the best 10 p.m. drama debut on ABC in over five years, since the premiere of “Big Sky.”  

On the comedy side, “Abbott Elementary” was the first to have its fate cemented with a Season 6 renewal, while its comedy peers “Shifting Gears” and “Scrubs” remain on the bubble, though the latter is still early on in its rollout.  

In its fifth season, “Abbott Elementary,” which is also an awards darling for the network, is averaging 6.09 million viewers, while “Shifting Gears” is averaging 6.86 million viewers. While the same data isn’t available for “Scrubs” since the reboot debuted Feb. 25, ABC reported the Bill Lawrence-created series tallied 11.36 million viewers in its first days of viewing on ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and other digital platforms. 

It’s worth noting that “Dancing With the Stars” ranked as the No. 5 multiplatform broadcast series with an average 9.11 million viewers after its fresh casting brought in a new generation of fans that embraced the show’s appointment viewing. “American Idol” wasn’t too far behind with 7.6 million viewers, ranking as the No. 18 multiplatform broadcast show. 

The other unscripted component for ABC is, of course, “The Bachelor” franchise, which has undergone some shifts and paused during the 2025-26 season. It will return with the star power of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” lead Taylor Frankie Paul, who will star in the next season of “The Bachelorette” when it debuts on March 22.

While ABC shared the bulk of its decisions earlier on, renewals have been trickling in across the networks in the leadup to upfronts, with CBS giving early greenlights to 10 shows and Fox handing out renewals to “Animal Control” and “Doc.” Keep an eye out for upcoming analyses as those decisions tally up.

“The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” Grows

After its post-NFL premiere boosted “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” to rank as the most-watched comedy episode this season with 5.8 million viewers, the pilot has since amassed nearly 13 million viewers since Jan. 18. Additionally, Episode 2 stands as the most-watched NBC comedy episode on Peacock this season.

“The Pitt” holds steady

“The Pitt” is holding strong in its second season, most recently becoming the No. 4 most-watched streaming show during the week of Feb. 2 — which coincided with the drop of Episode 5 — with 940 million viewing minutes, per Nielsen. While viewership was down from the weekly high of 1.21 billion viewing minutes — which boosted the show to its highest placement to date — it achieved the previous week, the medical drama maintained its spot on the overall streaming list.

NHL hits a high

Sunday’s NHL game between the Detroit Red Wings and the New Jersey Devils brought in ESPN’s most-viewed game in five years, excluding Opening Night and Stadium Series, with 863,000 viewers. Viewership for the game, which peaked at 941,000 viewers, was up 111% over last season’s NHL on ESPN average. Through 33 games, the NHL on ESPN and ABC is averaging 782,000 viewers, marking a 21% year-over-year uptick.

ICYMI

• Alan Ritchson’s “War Machine” hit an impressive 39.3 million views during its opening weekend on Netflix, soaring to the top of the most-watched English films list
• “Fallout” notched over 1 billion viewing minutes on Prime Video with its Season 2 finale drop
• “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” became FX’s most-watched limited series ever on Disney+ and Hulu as it tallied more than 25 million hours over its first five episodes

The post ABC Renewal Ratings: Which On-the-Bubble Shows Are the Safest? appeared first on TheWrap.

While the first “Game of Thrones” prequel series, “House of the Dragon,” faithfully followed the beloved original George R.R. Martin TV adaption with big budgets, established stars and frequent major battle scenes featuring graphic violence, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” took a new approach as it embraced a more contained story — following an unlikely pair of companions rather than a whole kingdom filled with houses vying for power — in shorter episodes with more humor and less nudity and epic violence — but still enough DNA to qualify as a “Game of Thrones” entry.

“George [R.R. Martin] and Ira [Parker] envisioned this from the start as a single POV story in contrast to the more sprawling dramas in the universe. It makes it more personal, and I think viewers are eager to follow an underdog hero in this world,” HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi told TheWrap in an email, noting that they noticed big interest in the “individual storylines in ‘Game of Thrones.’ “

Orsi added that audiences are resonating with the titular knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), “who believes in his code and is doing the right thing no matter the consequences” — a theme she believes is “particularly relevant today.”

The success of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which saw audience momentum build as its six-episode season went on, offers a blueprint for how to reinvigorate a franchise by taking risks and defying audience expectations. In this case, the personal focus on Dunk and Egg ran counter to the grander stories of the past, satisfying the desire for something fresh set in a well-beloved universe.

The experiment paid off for HBO in a big way, with the premiere of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” landing among the top three series launches in HBO Max’s history, scoring 6.7 million viewers across both platforms in three days.

Though the series was short of the 19 million viewers that tuned in to the “House of the Dragon” series premiere back in 2022, it outperformed recent series premieres of other IP-based genre series, including “It: Welcome to Derry,” which debuted to 5.7 million viewers over three days in October 2025. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” also beat the debuts of both “Dune: Prophecy,” which scored 1.2 million viewers in November 2024, and even “The Last of Us,” whose series debut delivered 4.7 million viewers. It should be noted, however, that those premieres only include one day of viewing data, with HBO shifting to reporting live-plus-three-day numbers in recent years to adapt to the streaming landscape.

Viewership for “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” grew week-over-week (with the exception of Episode 4, which had an early debut ahead of Super Bowl Sunday). Episode 5 hit a series-high viewership of 9.2 million for the big battle episode. By the finale, the spinoff hit another series high of 9.5 million viewers, still shy of the 17.3 million viewers that tuned in to the “House of the Dragon” Season 1 finale —as well as the 15.5 million viewers and nearly 14 million viewers that tuned into the Season 2 premiere and finale, respectively.

Overall, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is averaging 15.5 million viewers and growing (HBO counts average viewership through 90 days after debut). While the audience is nearly half of the 29 million viewers scored by “House of the Dragon” Season 1, and down from “House of the Dragon” Season 2’s average viewership of nearly 25 million, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” has already well surpassed the average viewership of the first three seasons of “Game of Thrones,” which drew 9.3 million viewers, 11.6 million viewers and 14.4 million viewers, respectively.

While “House of the Dragon” made the impressive feat of surpassing the 25.7 million viewers “Game of Thrones” averaged in its sixth season, it seems nearly impossible to reach the 32.8 million viewers “GoT” averaged by Season 7, same with the whopping 46 million viewers the show averaged in its eighth and final season — which marked a moment of peak water cooler TV that even “The Last of Us” nor the newest season of “The White Lotus” couldn’t reach.

With “House of the Dragon” expected to come to an end with its fourth season — which would take the spinoff series through 2028 — “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is well positioned to take on the “Game of Thrones” torch, with its first season already proving to capture a notable segment of the franchise’s audience, on a cheaper budget.

The show is projected to cost under $10 million per episode, significantly lower than the projected $15 million episodic budget for the final season of “Game of Thrones” and $20 million per episode for “House of the Dragon.”

While Parker expressed interest in the show extending through 12 seasons, Orsi remained tight-lipped about the potential longevity of “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”

“This show was renewed for a second season even before it aired, because we’ve fully embraced it, but we’ll have to have conversations with Ira and George down the road for any stories past these novellas,” Orsi said.

“Survivor 50” makes some noise

The Feb. 25 premiere of “Survivor 50” brought in 5.1 million viewers, boosting CBS to its most-watched Wednesday night since the “Survivor” Season 42 finale in 2022.

Not only was the debut the most-watched “Survivor episode since the Season 45 finale, it also saw a 26% uptick from the fall 2025 premiere as well as a 19% rise from the spring 2025 debut.

ABC Tuesday dramas win

ABC’s Tuesday drama slate of “High Potential,” “Will Trent” and “The Rookie” ranked within the top five broadcast shows of the season so far, according to Nielsen live-plus-seven-day multiplatform viewing. While CBS’ “Tracker” took the top spot with an average 14.1 million viewers, “High Potential” came next with 12.7 million viewers. Next was CBS’ “Matlock” with 9.8 million viewers while “Will Trent” and “The Rookie” scored 9.6 and 9.2 million viewers, respectively. It should be noted, however, that these viewing figures run through Feb. 8, prior to the debut of most CBS series.

Post-Olympics hockey thrives

ESPN picked up the hockey torch following those Olympic gold medal matchups, with the Thursday game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers scoring 615,000 viewers — up 51% over last season’s NHL on ESPN average — while Saturday’s doubleheader saw the Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Rangers game average 973,000 viewers and Boston Bruins-Philadelphia Flyers game average 1.1 million viewers.

On Sunday, the Florida Panthers-New York Islanders delivered 668,000 viewers. Through 27 games, the NHL on ESPN and ABC is averaging 785,000 viewers, rising 17% year-over-year.  

ICYMI

• The “Yellowstone” spinoff series “Marshals” debuted Sunday to 9.5 million viewers, becoming the most-watched scripted series debut without a football lead-in since 2018.
• The “Scrubs” reboot drew 11.4 million views over five days of viewing across ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms, marking the biggest audience for an ABC comedy episode and ABC series debut overall on streaming in over a year since the series premiere of “Shifting Gears” in January 2025.
• The Part 2 drop of “Bridgerton” Season 4 brought the romance series back atop the Netflix top 10 TV list with 28 million views, matching last installment.

The post ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Ratings Prove Franchise IP Can Still Hit While Breaking the Mold appeared first on TheWrap.

Overall, the Comcast-owned company’s bet on a sports-heavy February paid off as Peacock reached new heights. The wins in viewership and the proving out of its tech capabilities paved the way for Peacock’s future presentation of the Olympics — which NBC has through 2036 — as well as other big sporting events.

The Olympics, which offered 3,200 hours of coverage across 116 events, averaged 23.5 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal’s digital platforms and Versant’s CNBC and USA Network across the combined live afternoon Milan prime window (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) periods, according to Nielsen big data plus panel viewership and preliminary figures.

Viewership climbed 96% from the 2022 Beijing Olympics, which averaged 12 million viewers, making the Milano Cortina games the most-watched Winter Olympics since Sochi 2014, which brought in 27.6 million average viewers over the comparable day parts. It should be noted, however, that coverage back then included former cable network NBCSN as the home to many live figure-skating competitions. 

Since Sochi, the winter Olympics in Beijing and PyeongChang struggled to match that viewership, sinking to all-time lows due to time differences and delayed presentations as well as a general viewership decline.

That difference can be seen even from viewership of the opening ceremonies, with the Milano Cortina opener scoring 21.4 million viewers, a 34% increase from Beijing, which began at 6:30 a.m. ET and aired again during primetime. Even while the Milan ceremony recovered some of those viewers, that general viewership decline is still present, with the opener for PyeongChang still on top with 28.3 million viewers.

Beyond a more compatible time zone, the Olympics found its streaming groove this year, following its streaming debut during the Beijing Games. The 2026 games hit streaming milestones from the start, with the opening Saturday tallying a record 1.3 billion minutes of Olympics coverage. Altogether, the 2026 Games scored a record 16.7 billion minutes streamed across NBCUniversal digital platforms, more than double the 6.9 billion viewing minutes tallied by the prior Winter Olympics combined.

We’d be remiss not to note the role of NBC’s “Legendary February” programming block within the streaming viewership for the Olympics. NBCUniversal leveraged a sports-heavy month to drive viewers to Peacock for the Olympics, Super Bowl and NBA All-Star game, opted to sub in the coveted post-Super Bowl broadcast slot with Milan primetime coverage and also played Peacock original “The ‘Burbs” following the big game’s livestream. The company also opted not to offer the Super Bowl in its FAST channels, leading interested streaming viewers to get a subscription to tune in.

Coverage of the Olympics on Super Bowl day averaged 42 million viewers, marking NBCUniversal’s largest Winter Games audience since Day 2 of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and even rose 73% over the corresponding 2022 Beijing Olympics show that followed Super Bowl LVI.

The Milano Cortino Games marked the first step in a promising rebound for the Winter Olympics, though only time will tell if things keep trending in that direction for the games as they head to the French Alps in 2030.

As for which events brought in the biggest audiences, hockey was a big winner. The USA-Canada matchup on Thursday marked the most-watched women’s hockey game on record with 5.3 million viewers across USA Network and Peacock, while the men’s game scored 20.7 million viewers, marking the most-watched pre-9 a.m. ET (start time) sporting event on record in U.S. history, as well as NBC Sports’ most-watched streaming audience ever (excluding NFL).

“Live with Kelly and Mark” hits season high

During a turbulent time for daytime TV, “Live with Kelly and Mark” has managed to make gains. The talk show hit a season high and its best performance in over a year during the week of Jan. 26, with an average 2.75 million viewers — up 11% from the previous week — and a household rating of 1.86 — up 13% over last week.

The series also saw gains among women 18-49, which averaged a 0.29 rating, as well as among women 25-54, which averaged a 0.48 rating during the week. Year-over-year, the show has risen 7% in total viewers, 11% in households and 4% in women 25-54.

Telemundo finales thrive

Two Telemundo shows closed out their series strong, with “Exatlón Estados Unidos” averaging 361,000 adults 18-49 and 1.45 million total viewers, while “Dinastía Casillas” averaged 626,000 demo viewers and 1.64 million total viewers, according to live-plus-same-day Nielsen figures.

Together, the network averaged 89,000 demo viewers and 1.55 million total viewers, boosting Telemundo to become the No. 1 Spanish-language primetime television network.

Oscar noms boost “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another”

After Oscars nominations were unveiled on Jan. 22, several nominees saw some streaming love, with “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” logging 297 million minutes viewed and 215 million minutes on HBO Max, respectively, during the week of Jan. 19, per Nielsen.

While “One Battle After Another” saw a slight lift from the previous week’s viewership of 208 million viewing minutes, the Oscar nod brought “Sinners” back into the top 10 streaming movies list for the first time since July. 

CBS scores in multiplatform fall ratings

The Paramount-owned network maintained its dominance among the broadcast channels, with CBS accounting for eight of the top 10 broadcast series in 35-day multiplatform ratings for the fall season.

“Tracker” topped the list with an average of 16.65 million viewers, while ABC’s “High Potential” averaged 16.07 million viewers in the No. 2 slot and “Matlock” coming in third place with 12.21 million viewers. Other CBS series in the top 10 include “Sheriff Country,” “Ghosts,” “60 Minutes,” “Boston Blue,” “NCIS” and “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.”

ICYMI

• Also in the NBCUniversal/Peacock sphere, “The ‘Burbs” reaped the benefits of its Super Bowl debut, with the Keke Palmer-led series reaching nearly 1 billion viewing minutes in 11 days.
• On HBO, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” went out with a bang as its finale scored another series high of 9.5 million viewers in the U.S. across three days. “The Pitt,” “Industry” and “Neighbors” also saw viewership milestones.
• Hulu’s “Tell Me Lies” ended with a ratings bang as its Season 3 finale rose 70% from its Season 3 premiere.
• Viewership for Netflix’s “America’s Next Top Model” doc outpaced the launch of “The Night Agent” Season 3

The post How Big Were the Milan Winter Olympics Ratings? appeared first on TheWrap.

“Bridgerton” Season 4 Part 1, which like Season 3 consisted of four episodes, debuted to 39.7 million views during the week of Jan. 26, bringing in over three times the viewership from its closest competitor, “His & Hers,” with 11 million views that week. The initial debut marked a 12% decrease from the audience brought in by Season 3 Part 1 during the same time period, though the second week narrowed the gap as Season 4 scored 23.4 million views, just 7.5% down from Season 3’s second week viewership. 

By the third week since Season 4’s release, the margin widened again, with the 9.4 million viewers dipping 19% from last season’s Week 3 performance. A comparison for Seasons 1 and 2 is difficult to make, with the first two installments dropping as binge releases, while the latest seasons embraced a two-part model. It should be noted that when Part 2 drops on Feb. 26, viewership will naturally slide down as Netflix’s measurement for views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) stretches to be divided by eight hour-long episodes rather than four.

While there’s always a chance Season 4 could gain on the previous installment with the Part 2 drop, the slight downtick is to be expected for ongoing shows, with “Bridgerton” taking over the cultural zeitgeist back in pandemic-era 2020. It’s a fate that has befallen even Netflix’s biggest shows. Just look at “Wednesday,” which wowed audiences with 252.1 million views in its first 91 days — becoming the streamer’s most-watched English-language TV series — but returned with less than half that viewership in a comparable time frame with Season 2 picking up 119.3 million views. 

The same goes for “Squid Game,” whose first season similarly marked the streamer’s biggest non-English TV show with 265.2 million cumulative views, while Season 2 and 3 progressively dipped with 192.6 million views and 145.8 million views, respectively. And even as “Stranger Things 4” was able to triumph over its previous seasons to become the most-watched installment thus far with 140.7 million views in its first 91 days, Season 5 hasn’t reached that level quite yet, with the installment hitting 130 million views thus far.

All that is to say that a gradual decrease in viewership is expected for long-running TV shows, especially those in their fourth season, as the shininess of the fandom rubs off ever so slightly. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, with series like “Industry” or “Tell Me Lies” hitting their ratings stride in their third seasons, but for these big, tentpole series, it’s often hard to replicate that initial phenomenon. Given the viewership and value “Bridgerton” continues to bring in for Netflix, fans hoping to see each and every Bridgerton sibling find love in their own season shouldn’t sound the alarm bells.

Overall, “Bridgerton” Season 4 accounts for a massive audience for the streamer. Viewership during the second half of 2025 (between seasons) for the series’ three seasons and spinoff series “Queen Charlotte,” and its themed fireplace feature, totaled 27.6 million views, comparable to the 33.2 million views brought in by “Ginny & Georgia’s” three seasons, which was slightly inflated following the Season 3 drop in June.

With all this in mind, it makes sense why Netflix is still all-in on “Bridgerton.” The streamer already greenlit Seasons 5 and 6 back in May, a year after the debut of Season 3. While nothing is guaranteed, Netflix’s commitment to the series appears to be enough to propel “Bridgerton” through eight seasons, in alignment with Julia Quinn’s eight-book series, giving each Bridgerton sibling their own season-long love story.

The streamer’s commitment can also be seen in the continued merchandising for the franchise, which Netflix added onto this season with several collaborations in the beauty, fashion and home goods departments.

NBC’s Legendary February goes strong

As highlighted in last week’s ratings column, NBC is seeing nothing but wins across its Legendary February programming, with the Super Bowl scoring its second biggest audience to date with 124.9 million viewers and the Winter Olympics already capturing a streaming high on Friday, Feb. 6, thanks to the opening ceremony. NBC added another win this weekend as the NBA All-Star reached a 15-year viewership high with 8.8 million viewers, and we’ll see what other ratings milestones the network hits as the Olympics winds down.

“The Pitt” hits another milestone

The medical drama has been on a roll in its second season, with “The Pitt” outpacing its previous weekly high of 939 million streaming minutes during the week of Jan. 5 to reach 1.16 billion viewing minutes during the week of Jan. 12, marking the first time the series has surpassed 1 billion minutes in a week, according to Nielsen.

The milestone boosted “The Pitt” to take the No. 4 spot among original streaming series — behind “His & Hers,” “Landman” and “Stranger Things” — and land in the No. 5 spot on the overall streaming list.

“Predator: Badlands” scores strong streaming debut

After the theatrical debut for “Predator: Badlands,” which saw the movie score the highest opening and highest-grossing “Predator” film but struggled to draw a wider audience, it hit an impressive streaming debut as it became Hulu’s No. 1 film premiere since “Prey” with 9 million views globally in five days. Overall, the “Predator” franchise has tallied up 300 million hours streamed across Disney+ and Hulu.

ICYMI

• ABC’s Thursday drama lineup of “9-1-1,” “9-1-1: Nashville’” and “Grey’s Anatomy” scored season ratings highs with delayed viewing
• The standalone “Muppets Show” special charmed nearly 8 million viewers in 8 days across Disney+ and ABC
• “The Lincoln Lawyer” dethroned “Bridgerton” on Netflix’s top 10 list this week

The post Why the ‘Bridgerton’ Ratings Dip Isn’t Cause for Concern | Analysis appeared first on TheWrap.

Both events, which made up two thirds of what NBCUniversal dubs “Legendary February,” drove massive ratings wins for NBCUniversal — especially on streaming — including giving Peacock its best performance day ever on Super Bowl Sunday in both reach and hours streamed.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. NBCUniversal’s ratings records started Friday with the opening ceremony for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, which averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. The ceremony posted a 34% uptick from the 2022 Beijing Winter Games opener — to be expected given the early 6:30 a.m. ET start time for the Beijing one. It’s also notable that the event gathered an average of 3 million viewers via streaming, as more audiences tuned in using Peacock.

The Olympics’ ratings milestones only started there, with NBCUniversal also reporting on Saturday that the 2026 Games had already reached a streaming audience high for the Winter Olympics with 700 million minutes tallied up through Friday.

The games saw a significant boost on Saturday, which ranked as the most-watched Winter games presentation since day 10 of the 2014 Sochi Olympics with 28.5 million viewers. Saturday’s events averaged 4.1 million streaming viewers, and even reached a record 1.3 billion minutes streaming, marking the first time the Winter Olympics brought in over 1 billion minutes streamed.

Cue: Super Bowl Sunday, one of the biggest TV viewership vehicles in history, which happened to fall into NBCUniversal’s hands this year as part of its rotation. NBCUniversal opted not to utilize one of its FAST channels to stream the game like Fox did with Tubi last year, which only drove viewers to Peacock already in the midst of Olympic fever. That might be one factor that prompted viewership to dip a slight 2% from last year’s all-time record of 127.7 million viewers to reach 124.9 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+.

Despite the slight drop in viewership — which extended to Bad Bunny’s halftime show that trailed behind Kendrick Lamar’s record last year with 128.2 million viewers — the Super Bowl can certainly be considered a win for NBCUniversal, ranking as the most-watched show in the company’s history and driving Peacock to its most-watched day to date.

NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo also saw a big lift as both the Super Bowl and the halftime show soared to their highest Spanish-language viewership.

The massive events also boosted adjacent programming, including the post-Super Bowl debut of Keke Palmer-led dramedy “The Burbs,” which NBCUniversal played directly after the game on Peacock while leaving the coveted post-game broadcast slot to more Olympics coverage. The move paid off, with “The Burbs” scoring the biggest premiere day for a Peacock original ever. Additionally, Friday’s post-Olympics airing of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” scored the show’s most-watched episode since the 2024 Thanksgiving post-NFL airing with 2.4 million viewers.

Since the weekend, the Olympics have continued to make noise for NBC, with the games averaging 26.5 million viewers through Tuesday night, ranking as the most-watched Winter Games presentation at this point since the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The streaming count hit 5.3 billion minutes through Tuesday, marking a 36% uptick from the 3.9 billion minutes tallied up by the 2022 Olympics.

With the Olympics continuing through Feb. 22 and the NBA All-Star weekend coming up to round out NBCU’s “Legendary February” programming, we’re sure more ratings and streaming records are forthcoming.

Guthrie disappearance drives “Today” viewership

Another development bringing eyes to NBCUniversal has been the ongoing disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, who has been missing since Jan. 31. During the week of Feb. 2, “Today” averaged nearly 3.3 million viewers — a 23% uptick from last year — and outpaced the 2.9 viewers averaged by ABC’s “GMA” and 1.8 million for “CBS Mornings.”

The viewership gains did not translate to the 25-54 demo, with “Today” seeing a 4% year-over-year dip with 648,000 viewers, but still beating “GMA’s” viewership of 495,000 and “CBS Mornings’s” 254,000 viewers.

“CBS Evening News” grows, but doesn’t dominate

Elsewhere in the broadcast news space, “CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil” gained ground, with the show averaging 4.6 million viewers and 579,000 demo viewers during the week of Jan. 2. That’s up 10% in total viewers and 9% in the demo compared to the week of launch.

The gains weren’t enough to outpace ABC’s “World News Tonight,” which averaged 9 million viewers during the same week. “World News Tonight” also outpaced “CBS Evening News” by 99% in demo viewers aged 25-54.

A historic rivalry scores fresh record

The rivalry basketball game between Duke and UNC became ESPN’s most-watched men’s basketball game in four years with an average of 3.5 million viewers. Viewership for the game, which peaked with 4.8 million viewers, marked a 53% uptick from the first matchup in of the season.

ICYMI

• Super Bowl companion the Puppy Bowl also scored its biggest audience in eight years.
• “Bridgerton” Season 4 kept dominating Netflix’s most-watched TV list in its second week since premiering Part 1.
• HBO Max phenomenon “Heated Rivalry” doubled its viewership after its finale, surpassing 10.6 million viewers in the U.S. to date.
• YouTube and the Super Bowl’s second annual creator-led football game scored 14 million views.

The post NBC’s Big Weekend: How Super Bowl and Winter Olympics Drove Record-Breaking Ratings appeared first on TheWrap.

The TV landscape had already fragmented by the time the 2024 Super Bowl set a new viewership record with 123.7 million viewers tuning in to matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, rising 7.47% from the 115.1 million viewers brought in by the 2023 Chiefs-Philadelphia Eagles game, which, at the time, marked the event’s biggest audience in six years. 

By the next year, Super Bowl LVIII broke its previous record as it reached 127.7 million viewers for the latest Chiefs-Eagles game. Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 halftime show also set a new record as the most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history with 133.5 million viewers, rising 3% from the 129.3 million viewers that tuned into Usher’s halftime show the previous year.

Recent viewership trends offer optimism that the 2026 Super Bowl will grow on its record once again, with VideoAmp chief revenue officer Bryan Goski noting that people are watching live events now “more than ever.” He noted that the fragmentation of viewing across linear and streaming platforms creates a perception that overall viewing is down without accounting for viewing habits across the board.

Last year’s Super Bowl offered a free streaming option for viewers through Tubi, which live streamed the game for free for the first time as Fox aired it on linear. But this year doesn’t have a FAST component, with the New England Patriots-Seattle Seahawks game set to air on NBC, Peacock, NFL+ and NBCUniversal-owned Spanish-language channels Telemundo and Universo. This limits the accessibility of the game for viewers without cable or streaming subscriptions, the latter of which favors younger demos.

Indeed, if you want to watch this year’s Super Bowl on Peacock, you’ll have to sign up for a $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year plan.

Though NBCUniversal owns plenty of FAST channels, the move to make Peacock the Super Bowl’s sole streaming home is part of the Comcast-owned company’s effort to drive subscriptions to its platform ahead of both the NBA All-Star game on Feb. 15 and the Winter Olympics, which kick off Friday and run through Feb. 22.

“You’re going to use these big, must-watch events, à la love the Super Bowl, to move toward the streaming platform, which is everyone’s strategy,” Goski told TheWrap, pointing to the decline of linear TV and the emergence of streaming, but still noting the linear should not be underestimated as it brings in solid viewership for the game. “How are you as NBCU using that as a means to get more adoption of the Peacock platform, which is the strategic future of the business?”

Additionally, methodologies to measure viewership have shifted slightly, with Sunday’s game marking the first Super Bowl since Nielsen’s new big data + panel measurement system rolled out this fall. The new system combines existing panel with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices through the company’s partnership with big data partners like Roku, Comcast, Dish, Vizio, and DirecTV and also incorporates first-party data from participating streaming services for live events.

While Nielsen’s out-of-home expansion has been cited for year-over-year ratings gains this football season, the expansion had rolled out by the time of last year’s Super Bowl, so this year’s game shouldn’t be too impacted there. The company is also launching a new pilot program to more accurately count co-viewing, though those results won’t be available for a few weeks, per Nielsen.

Viewership for Super Bowl LX of course depends on the interest in the specific teams, as the New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks, as well as the trajectory of the game (a close last quarter might make all the difference).

Sunday’s game marks the first Super Bowl in three years that won’t feature the Kansas City Chiefs, whose association with Taylor Swift via fiancé Travis Kelce undeniably boosted ratings for the team’s games. But Goski doesn’t believe the lack of a “Swift Cam” will impact this year’s ratings.

“Things like the Taylor Swift effect are interesting spikes for certain games … but I don’t think it’s going to have a dramatic change of viewership, because you have such a loyal fanbase in the NFL that just wants to watch,” Goski said.

As for the halftime show, anticipation has been mounting for Bad Bunny’s performance after the Feb. 1 Grammys saw host Trevor Noah try to get the reggaeton artist to break his contract by singing a few bars at the ceremony. He didn’t, though his win for album of the year — the first time a Spanish-language album won the accolade — as well as his anti-ICE speech only generated more buzz ahead of the spotlight performance. 

Turning Point USA is set to air an alternative “All-American Halftime Show” featuring Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert and more across Turning Point USA’s X and Rumble, as well as the Daily Wire and Trinity Broadcasting Network, though it’s still to be seen if it will pose any meaningful competition to the Super Bowl show.

Stay tuned next week to see how the numbers shape up. Now, on to the rest of this week’s ratings highlights.

ABC sees ratings wins for “American Idol,” “High Potential” and “The Rookie”

ABC has seen notable ratings wins with its spring slate, with the season premiere of “American Idol” bringing in 8.27 million viewers after three days of viewing on ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms, rising 20% over the last season premiere and marking the show’s strongest premiere in four years.

The network also saw impressive viewership for its Tuesday lineup as “High Potential” nabbed 9.07 million viewers in its first week of multiplatform viewing, marking the best seven-day linear performance for an ABC scripted show in over five years, since “Grey’s Anatomy” in November 2020. Additionally, “The Rookie” scored its best performance among total viewers over five years with 9.65 million viewers after one week.

NHL Stadium Series scores most-watched regular season game ever on cable

Sunday’s Bruins-Lightning match averaged 2.1 million viewers, rising 30% over last year’s Stadium Series to become the most-watched regular season game ever on cable. Through 22 games, the NHL on ESPN networks is averaging 795K viewers, up 39% year-over-year.

ESPN scores second most-watched month in 30 years

The network closed out January as ESPN’s No. 2 most-watched month in 30 years, dating back to 1996 as well as its No. 1 month in over a decade, since January 2015. The channel averaged 1.7 million viewers, up 12% from January 2025.

ICYMI

• The 2026 Grammys dipped 6.4% from last year as it scored 14.4 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+
• “Bridgerton” Season 4, Part 1 debuted to 39.7 million views in its first four days on Netflix, marking a slight downtick from the Season 3 premiere, which earned 45.1 million views
• “The Rip” was Netflix’s top movie for the third week in a row with 14.6 million views during the week of Jan. 26

The post Can the 2026 Super Bowl Keep Up the Big Game’s Record-Breaking Ratings Streak? appeared first on TheWrap.