In recent years, many of TV’s biggest shows have come from streaming services—from Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso and Netflix’s Bridgerton to Disney+’s The Mandalorian and beyond. And as those streamers continue to lean hard into original content, we’re left to wonder what current offerings people still watch on old-fashioned channels.
In a word, football. Variety compiled the viewership stats across network and cable channels for the 2021-2022 TV season and found that three of the four most watched programs were weekly football broadcasts. NBC’s Sunday Night Football is the most popular, with just over 18.1 million viewers, followed by Fox’s Thursday Night Football at about 15.4 million. Monday night games on ESPN landed in fourth place, slightly edged out of third by everyone’s favorite dad show: Paramount Network’s Kevin Costner-starring Yellowstone.
All sports and rancher dynasties aside, viewers tend to tune into crime and procedural dramas more than anything. NCIS, FBI, Blue Bloods, and The Equalizer made the top 10, along with 60 Minutes and Chicago Fire. NBC’s Chicago universe at large has a broader fanbase than strictly-streaming TV lovers might realize: Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med are both in the top 15. In other words, Dick Wolf’s domination of network TV isn’t over. As co-creator of the Chicago, FBI, and Law & Order franchises, he has a total of nine shows in the top 50.
Network sitcoms aren’t exactly living up to the precedent set by classics like Friends and Seinfeld, but they’re not extinct yet: CBS’s The Big Bang Theory prequel series Young Sheldon took 12th place. And when it comes to reality TV, long-running competition series continue to reign supreme: The Voice, Survivor, and American Idol all made the top 50.
Scroll on to see if your (or your parents’) favorite show did too, and check out Variety’s full list here.
- NFL Sunday Night Football (NBC) // 18.14 million
- NFL Thursday Night Football (Fox/NFL Network) // 15.4 million
- Yellowstone (Paramount Network) // 11.31 million
- NFL Monday Night Football (ESPN) // 11.23 million
- NCIS (CBS) // 11.01 million
- FBI (CBS) // 10.35 million
- Chicago Fire (NBC) // 9.92 million
- Blue Bloods (CBS) // 9.78 million
- The Equalizer (CBS) // 9.45 million
- 60 Minutes (CBS) // 9.38 million
- Chicago P.D. (NBC) // 9.26 million
- Young Sheldon (CBS) // 9.22 million
- Chicago Med (NBC) // 9.2 million
- FBI: Most Wanted (CBS) // 8.85 million
- NFL Thursday Night Football (NFL Network) // 8.78 million
- Ghosts (CBS) // 8.41 million
- NCIS: Hawai'i (CBS) 8.34 million
- FBI: International (CBS) // 8.31 million
- The Voice - Tuesday (NBC) // 8.28 million
- 9-1-1 (Fox) // 8.15 million
- The Voice - Monday (NBC) // 8.12 million
- This Is Us (NBC) // 8 million
- 9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox) // 7.46 million
- Bull (CBS) // 7.45 million
- La Brea (NBC) // 7.43 million
- Survivor (CBS) // 7.42 million
- NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS) // 7.35 million
- Magnum P.I. (CBS) // 7.34 million
- American Idol (ABC) // 7.26 million
- The Good Doctor (ABC) // 7.14 million
- American Idol - Monday (ABC) // 6.99 million
- Law & Order: SVU (NBC) // 6.84 million
- CSI: Vegas (CBS) // 6.8 million
- The Neighborhood (CBS) // 6.76 million
- Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS) // 6.7 million
- Grey's Anatomy (ABC) // 6.51 million
- S.W.A.T. (CBS) // 6.5 million
- The Rookie (ABC) // 6.43
- Dancing with the Stars (ABC) // 6.3 million
- Station 19 (ABC) // 6.22 million
- New Amsterdam (NBC) // 6.17 million
- Law & Order (NBC) // 6.08 million
- The Masked Singer (Fox) // 5.88 million
- United States of Al (CBS) // 5.86 million
- Seal Team (CBS) // 5.83 million
- Big Sky (ABC) // 5.74 million
- B Positive (CBS) // 5.69 million
- Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC) // 5.56 million
- The Amazing Race (CBS) // 5.5 million
- The Cleaning Lady (Fox) // 5.17 million