{"id":586617,"date":"2026-04-15T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/586617\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T23:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:09:09","slug":"nbc-likely-to-best-cbs-in-total-viewers-for-2025-26-broadcast-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/586617\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC Likely To Best CBS In Total Viewers For 2025-26 Broadcast Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor the first time in more than a decade, it looks like CBS<\/a> won\u2019t be taking the broadcast crown for a full TV season.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the network still can lay claim to quite a few wins for the 2025-26 season, total viewers won\u2019t be one of them as NBC<\/a> likely will come out on top when all is said and done, per Nielsen Most Current data. That\u2019s due in large part to the network\u2019s \u201clegendary February\u201d lineup that included the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Super Bowl LX<\/a> and the NBA All-Star Game. Primetime sports are up 82% on NBC this year, says Nielsen.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s George Cheeks admitted as much during a press briefing with reporters<\/a> on Wednesday, acknowledging: \u201cIn full transparency, while this year is undeniably strong for CBS, it\u2019ll be the first time since \u201907-\u201908 that CBS is not going to be No. 1 in total viewers. \u2018Legendary February\u2019 and NBC will be the reason for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCongrats to my former colleagues at NBC,\u201d Cheeks laughed before turning his attention back to CBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs mentioned, despite missing out on that achievement for an 18th year, CBS is still going strong. It has six of the top 20 most-watched series among all broadcast and streaming competition, Nielsen data shows. That\u2019s led by Marshals, which has stormed onto the network with 26.5M viewers in 28 days.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 2026 TV Cancellations Photo Gallery: Series Ending This Year & Beyond<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTracker<\/a>\u00a0also is going strong in its third season, securing 16.4M viewers in 28 days for its midseason return.\u00a0CIA,\u00a0Matlock<\/a>,\u00a0Sheriff Country and\u00a0Ghosts\u00a0are also among the top 20 shows on TV. While they barely missed the list,\u00a0Survivor 50\u00a0and\u00a0NCIS<\/a>\u00a0also drew 10M+ viewers with their first episodes of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tNothing is set in stone just yet because the broadcast season runs through May, and more data will come available in the next few weeks as series begin to wind down. Last season, CBS called its total-viewers win at the end of April<\/a>, officially becoming broadcast\u2019s longest winning streak on record, besting a milestone previously reached by CBS from 1955-70.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn all, CBS has had 22 winning seasons in terms of average total primetime viewership in the last 24 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 2026 Season-Finale Schedules For CBS, NBC, ABC & Fox<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 2026 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Streaming & Cable<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in more than a decade, it looks like CBS won\u2019t be taking the broadcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[991,41342,88,256641,2766,1254,34865,60122,109621,151389,2767,92,9611],"class_list":{"0":"post-586617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cbs","9":"tag-elsbeth","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-georgie-mandyu2019s-first-marriage","12":"tag-matlock","13":"tag-nbc","14":"tag-ncis","15":"tag-ncis-origins","16":"tag-super-bowl-lx","17":"tag-the-fall-and-rise-of-reggie-dinkins","18":"tag-tracker","19":"tag-tv","20":"tag-tv-ratings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}