NBC Tops Premiere Week Viewership, Breaks 10-Year CBS Streak
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NBC has come out on top in both the ratings and total viewership charts for premiere week.
The Peacock’s win snaps CBS’ 10-year streak atop the total viewership table. 2019 is the first time NBC has come out on top in the metric since 2001. The network’s top performers came in the form of usual suspects such as “The Voice,” “This Is Us” and the “Chicago” trifecta.
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Every single network was down on last year in average 18-49 Live+Same Day rating, which is unsurprising given how poorly all the networks’ new shows performed overall. Meanwhile, Fox was the only network to be up in total viewership, thanks in no small part to strong performances from “Thursday Night Football,” “9-1-1” and “The Masked Singer.” CBS was the network to fall furthest, dropping from 8.4 million viewers on average during 2018 premiere week, to 6.9 million this time around.
ABC finished bottom in both metrics this year, having been leapfrogged by Fox in total viewership. This is the eighth year straight that NBC has come out on top when it comes to the ratings.
See below for the 2019 premiere week network rankings:
Ratings:
NBC 1.8
Fox 1.7
CBS 1.0
ABC 0.9
Total Viewership:
NBC 7.5 million
CBS 6.9 million
Fox 5.8 million
ABC 4.7 million
The 2018 premiere week tables looked like this:
Ratings:
NBC 2.0
Fox 1.6
CBS 1.3
ABC 1.2
Total Viewership:
CBS 8.4 million
NBC 7.9 million
ABC 5.4 million
Fox 5.3 million
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