CBS and its 20-year-old procedural drama NCIS once again lead broadcast primetime's fall season, but the Nielsen ratings data dump released by CBS Tuesday belied continued major erosion of linear broadcast television.
From September 19 to October 23, NCIS was the most-watched show on broadcast TV, averaging 9.63 million viewers each week. NCIS, which until last season starred 71-year-old former UCLA quarterback Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, special agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, started its 20th season on September 19.
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Meshing Nielsen Live+7, Live+3 and Live+SD data from September 19-October 30, CBS said that it owns 17 of the 25 most-watched shows in broadcast primetime in the fall season's first crucial month, with procedural dramas dominating that list. (Note: CBS has led in total broadcast viewers for some time, but not performance in the key 18-49 demographic, which the broadcasters sell their ad time upon.)
CBS said that within the one-month-plus span of measurement, it captured 45.82 billion minutes of viewing engagement, which leads all networks. As Deadline noted, this is down significantly — around 22% — from the same span in 2021, when CBS took in around 59 billion viewing minutes of engagement.
As mentioned, dramas are driving viewership, with engagement for these hourlong shows trumping comedies, news and reality.
CBS also said that streaming of CBS network shows is up more than 50% year over year on Paramount Plus, with NCIS also ranking as the No. 1 drama on the platform.
It should be noted that the Paramount Plus user base has grown somewhat significantly since the third quarter of 2021 — Paramount Global added 1.7 million paid streaming users in the second quarter alone. ■
