The 2023-24 TV season was blown apart before it ever began. Two labor strikes and media companies’ refusal to budge on the demands of writers and actors wiped out a couple dozen fall premieres for scripted series on the broadcast networks. When management did agree to new terms with writers and actors (largely accepting the two unions’ demands), it meant shortened seasons for nearly every returning comedy and drama.
One thing remained consistent with previous years, however: The vast majority of shows on the five English-language broadcasters brought in smaller on-air audiences than they did the season before. Of the 143 primetime series with complete data for the September-to-May TV season, only 11 drew bigger total audiences than they did in , based on Nielsen’s seven-day ratings for 2023-24. Just five shows scored better ratings in the key ad-sales demographic of adults 18-49 vs.
last season. (Complete seven-day ratings for several series on — and — weren’t available. They are not included in the charts below, though based on their same-day numbers, they would likely fall near the bottom of the rankings.
) As is usually the case — as in, eight of the past nine seasons — ‘s led all shows in both total viewers (19.73 million, its biggest audience since 2019-20) and adults 18-49 (5.31 rating, equivalent to 6.
98 million people in that demo). The weekly NFL showcase improved by about 8 percent in both measures vs. the previous season.
Monday Night Football on f.
