Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2023’s Winners and Losers
28.12.2023 - 17:13
/ variety.com
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large There are several popular social media accounts that graph weekly cable network schedules, and it’s always stunning to see how many schedulers have just given up. Nearly every cable network, large and small, now mostly program marathons of their most popular shows. You know about “Ridiculousness” on MTV, of course.
But did you know how much time Disney Channel runs “Big City Greens,” Nick Jr. airs “Paw Patrol,” Adult Swim telecasts “Bob’s Burgers” and “American Dad,” and Nick at Nite runs “Friends”? A lot. As basic cable gets zombified, the double-digit declines continue.
Live sports, of course, is saving the broadcast networks and some cable networks still in that game. And then there’s the interesting case of the diginets, which have managed to keep their declines small as they program a wider range of nostalgia fare to aging adults. And the networks with a very loyal, specialized audience — bravo, Bravo — experienced the smallest declines this year.
Overall, NBC once again led the year in total viewers (and like last year, just narrowly over CBS) with 4.54 million viewers, while the Super Bowl helped give Fox the lead in adults 18-49 (with a nice 10% year-to-year bump). Tomorrow, Variety will share the ranker of this year’s most-watched primetime telecasts. Spoiler alert, it’s nearly all football.
It’s what keeps linear alive! But here, Variety recounts which networks were up and mostly, who was down in 2023. Reelzchannel: “On Patrol: Live” has been the gift that keeps giving for tiny, mostly forgotten cabler Reelzchannel. Since picking up the series, which was essentially a revival of A&E’s canceled “Live PD,” Reelzchannel has seen its average ratings shoot up dramatically.
.