Nielsen rankers for the 2023-2024 TV season in total viewers and adults 18-49 have been revealed: CBS’ freshman drama “Tracker” takes the crown as the No. 1 entertainment show.
TV audiences tracked down “Tracker” in a big way this season. The freshman CBS drama, which stars Justin Hartley as a survivalist who helps law enforcement and others solve tough cases, was the 2023-24 TV season’s most-watched entertainment series. According to the Eye network, that’s the first time a first-year TV series was ranked as the No. 1 show since “Survivor” premiered as an instant phenomenon in 2000 (and that was a summer show, so there’s an asterisk on that one).
“Tracker” was helped, of course, by premiering in February behind Super Bowl LVIII — giving it a huge jump start. And this was an unusual, truncated TV season due to the Hollywood strikes, which meant limited episodic orders for most programs. Last year’s top-rated show, Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone,” hasn’t aired an original episode in more than a year — and yet still made the charts, but via repeats that aired this season on CBS.
According to CBS, “Tracker” is the most-watched new series since “Desperate Housewives” in the 2004-05 TV season. For its first seven episodes, the show has averaged 19 million multiplatform viewers across broadcast and streaming over 35-day viewing.
NFL Dominates the Charts
No surprise, football led the season rankers, by way of No. 1 NFL franchise “Sunday Night Football” on NBC, followed by the return of “Monday Night Football” on ABC. (Combine the “MNF” franchise’s ABC/ESPN simulcast, and that would actually top “SNF.”) Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” was close behind in third place — a unique function of its deal with Nielsen, which measures the franchise as if it were a linear telecast. Meanwhile, with “Monday Night Football” back full time on ABC, that gave the Alphabet net the only season-to-season boost among the Big 4. (Among all broadcasters, Telemundo saw the biggest gains of the year.)
The Most Watched Comedy
The most-watched comedy of the year was CBS’ “Young Sheldon”, ending its series run on top (and likely even getting a boost from its popularity on Netflix). In the battle of the music contests, “The Voice” bested “American Idol” in viewers, but “Idol” led in 18-49. And “60 Minutes” kept its top 10 streak going for another year.
Winners and Losers
Besides “Tracker” and football, here are a few more winners and losers of the just-completed TV season:
The Golden Bachelor Shines Brightly
Even though Joan beats out the other women, they are all rooting for each other throughout the show.
The OG still has legs. Among adults 18-49, the CBS competition series is this year’s top-rated entertainment series. Not bad for a show that just ended its 46th edition (and premiered all the way back in 2000).
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