Daytona 500, ‘Yellowstone’ Crack Top Ten Most-Watched Programs: TV By the Numbers

Data & MeasurementSports
Written By Eleanor Semeraro

Here’s a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Feb. 13-19, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks with data from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

With the NFL season over, other sports are filling its place when it comes to capturing watch-time: Men’s college basketball and PGA Tour Golf led the week’s ranking, with 1.86% and 1.27% of minutes watched, respectively. 

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

  • The 2023 Daytona 500 zooms into seventh place for the week with 0.80% of watch-time, just slightly behind NBA basketball (0.81%). 

  • Thanks to a weekend rerun marathon on Paramount Network, Yellowstone jumps into the ranking at No. 8, capturing 0.73% of all minutes watched during the week. 

  • XFL football — which had its inaugural season cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — has kicked off fresh and squeaks into the ranking at No. 24, with week one games snagging 0.43% of watch-time.

  • NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt was another week-over-week ranking newcomer, landing at No. 23 with 0.43% of watch-time. 

Fueled in part by PGA Tour Golf, CBS moves into first place, up from No. 2 the previous week, capturing nearly 7% of minutes watched. ABC and NBC also rise up the ranking to second and third places, respectively. 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Feb. 13-19:

  • TNT rises up the chart from No. 12 to No. 8 with 2.06% of minutes watched, driven in part by NBA All-Star weekend programming. 

  • Paramount Network jumps from No. 29 to No. 18 week-over-week, capturing 1.28% of watch-time thanks to the previously-mentioned Yellowstone marathon. 

  • Fox Sports 1 benefitted from NASCAR programming, and was another week-over-week ranking newcomer, landing at No. 23 with 0.99% of minutes watched.

  • Networks maintaining their ranking position week-over-week include ESPN, ION, HGTV, USA Network and Nickelodeon. 

Eleanor Semeraro

Eleanor is an entertainment analyst and marketing strategist with a passion for all things TV and social media. She’s a regular TV[R]EV contributor and consults for small businesses within the advertising and entertainment data analytics ecosystem.

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