Fully 75% of NBC primetime is watched in real time, according to a new study from TiVo, ahead of ABC (73%), CBS (71%), Fox (68%) and The CW (56%). In terms of full-day schedules in the second quarter of 2016, NBC’s programming was watched live 82% of the time, same as ABC and CBS and ahead of Fox (73%) and The CW (66%).
Young-skewing CW had three of the top five most time-shifted shows in the second quarter: The Flash (63% shifted), Arrow (58%) and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (55%), which joined ABC’s Modern Family (55%) and Fox’s New Girl (53%) on the time-shifted list.
TiVo studied set-top box data from more than 2.3 million households in the second quarter.
In primetime, the broadcast nets saw 74% of their programming viewed live (80% in all-day schedules), while cable networks came in at 88% (91% for total day).
Not surprisingly, ESPN led the cable pack in DVR-buster programming, at 92% viewed live in prime, ahead of HGTV at 90% and CNN, USA, TBS and History at 88%. ESPN too won the all day category at 92%, ahead of HGTV, CNN and History at 91%.
Most time-shifted cable shows in the quarter were AMC’s Better Call Saul (72%), FX’s The Americans (69%), USA’s Royal Pains (62%), Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer (61%) and TBS’ Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (59%).
Conversely, the most live-viewed shows on cable were a pair of Alaska-set shows on Discovery: The Last Alaskans: Land of the Free and Alaskan Bush People: Off the Grid, both at 94%. Runners-up were If Loving You Is Wrong on OWN (93%), HGTV’s Island Life (92%) and CNN’s Tonight With Don Lemon (91%).
The most live-viewed broadcast shows were NBC’s Caught on Camera with Nick Cannon at 89%, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live (88%), NBC’s Dateline: On Assignment (87%), ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos (86%) and the lone scripted show on the list, NBC’s The Carmichael Show at 85%.
