TV Program Ranking: Olympics Dominates Watch-Time
Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for July 22-28, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. 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).
Although the Olympics didn’t kick off until Friday, the games still dominated TV watch-time for the week: Coverage of the events, including the Opening Ceremony and NBC’s Primetime in Paris broadcasts, had a combined 12.47% viewership share. It was also a big week for news programming, likely fueled by coverage around VP Kamala Harris taking President Joe Biden’s place for the Democratic ticket this November, as well as Olympics buzz.
A few more insights around the most-watched programming:
Although Major League Baseball slipped from second to third place, watch-time for games was up week-over-week, from 0.92% to 1.70%.
Multiple morning news programs rise up the ranking: Today jumps from No. 10 to No. 4, while Good Morning America moves from No. 11 to No. 8. CBS Mornings takes No. 19 (previously No. 23) and Morning Joe rockets from No. 49 to No. 24.
Week-over-week chart newcomers also included other news shows: NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt takes No. 13 (up from No. 35 previously), CNN News Central lands at No. 21 (up from No. 47), Gutfield! is at No. 22 (up from No. 30) and ABC World News Tonight moves into No. 24 (up from No. 49).
NBC takes first place on the TV network ranking, with watch-time driven by — you guessed it — the Olympics. Get the details on The Measure.
