TV Program Rankings: The NFL Is Back, But Olympics Still Take Gold

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for August 5-11, 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).

The Olympics remains at the top of the chart week-over-week, although its combined viewership share across networks slipped from 26.6% previously to 22.3% as the events wound down. Meanwhile, the NFL jumps up the ranking, with the first full week of preseason games accounting for 1.55% of minutes watched. We can expect football to assert its dominance as soon as next week — by this time last year, the NFL was already No. 1. 

A few more insights around the most-watched TV programs last week: 

• Baseball notched high viewership shares, with MLB games capturing 1.55% of watch-time, while regional tournaments for Little League Baseball snagged a 0.63% viewership share. 

• Nearly all of the news programs on the chart had increased viewership shares week-over-week — but not all rose up the ranking. The only ones that did saw a minor rise in position: Morning Joe (from No. 25 to No. 23), Hannity (from No. 22 to No. 21) and Jesse Watters Primetime (from No. 18 to No. 17). 

• For the second week in a row, Friends and The Big Bang Theory increased watch-time and move up the chart, both fueled by reruns on TBS. 

• Aside from Little League Baseball, CNN News Central was the only other week-over-week ranking newcomer, landing at No. 25. 

Thanks to the Olympics, NBC remains at No. 1 on the TV network ranking, which you can see on The Measure.