See the Top 20 shows — including three days’ worth of catch-up viewing — from last week
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“America’s Got Talent” ruled all entertainment shows on TV last week, holding onto its first-place slot in ratings that include “live,” as well as on-demand numbers — despite larger DVR catch-up for both “Bachelor in Paradise” in “Big Brother.”
How dominant were those three broadcast series? Once you remove football from the equation, the trio combined for the Top 7 slots on television. Hey, you would schedule your hits a few times a week too.
With each passing TV season, appointment viewing feels like more and more of a relic from a simpler time — one with no DVRs or streaming services. Nielsen’s Live + Same Day ratings, still reported each day by TheWrap and other publications, no longer tell the full story of an episode’s success — or its lack thereof.
As a result, TheWrap is publishing a weekly column that includes three days of catch-up viewing — just enough to drain some DVRs, but not so much that the episodes studied are a distant memory.
We’re counting cable, and those channels are heavily represented in the bottom half of our Top 20. (Really it’s 24 this week because of ties.)
Of note last week, a “Simpsons” rerun on Fox tied for ninth place. That encore episode only earned a 1.1 rating because it followed a big NFL football game, so it did not benefit from a DVR lift, as depicted in our chart below.
See our chart for the results from the week of Monday, Sept. 2, 2019 — Labor Day — through Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019. All numbers come from Nielsen’s Live + 3 Day ratings metric.
For the sake of focusing on heavily time-shifted programming, we’ve omitted sports. We made a judgment call and decided to keep WWE programming, which is branded as “sports entertainment,” in this study of entertainment series. You’ll see “Raw” take up three lines below. That’s just how USA Network has always coded the hours.
As readers can see, the biggest actual growers of the week were “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” “Snowfall,” “Mayans M.C.,” “BH90210” and “Below Deck Mediterranean.” Of course, the lower the starting point, the greater the opportunity for big percentage growth.
Check back with us each Friday for the latest rankings from the previous week.
19 Highest-Rated Broadcast TV Series Over the First Half of 2019 (Photos)
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ABC/NBC/CBS
It's July 1, which means 2019 is officially at its midway point. In honor of the very unofficial holiday, TheWrap has ranked the 19 highest-rated broadcast TV shows of the calendar year.
We've ranked them by Nielsen ratings among adults 18-49, which is the demographic most targeted by the advertisers on broadcast entertainment programs. We've also included each show's total-viewer averages as an alternative metric.
One last note: These numbers include a week's worth of delayed viewing where available, though that pretty much would only impact an episode or two of summer hit "America's Got Talent." Our data set runs from Jan. 1 through June 27, to be perfectly exact.
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NBC
Rank: 19
Show: "The Voice"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 1.93
Total Viewers: 10.527 millionAlso Read: Ratings: No Whammys for ABC’s ‘Press Your Luck’ Revival Premiere
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NBC
Rank: 18
Show: "New Amsterdam"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 1.97
Total Viewers: 10.379 millionAlso Read: MTV Movie and TV Awards Ratings Drop 46% From Last Year
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NBC
Rank: 17
Show: "Chicago Fire"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 2.02
Total Viewers: 11.780 millionAlso Read: Ratings: ABC’s ‘Holey Moley’ Tees Off, Lands Atop Thursday Leaderboard
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NBC
Rank: 16
Show: "America's Got Talent" (Tuesdays)
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 2.04
Total Viewers: 11.583 millionAlso Read: Ratings: No One Watched What Happened on Fred Savage’s ‘What Just Happened??!’ Debut
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NBC
Rank: 15
Show: "Chicago PD"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 2.07
Total Viewers: 11.271 millionAlso Read: Democratic Debate Night 2 Scores 18.1 Million Viewers, New Party Record for a Primary
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ABC
Rank: 14
Show: "The Conners"
Network: ABC
18-49 Rating: 2.12
Total Viewers: 9.391 millionAlso Read: NBCU’s Democratic Debate Lands 15.3 Million TV Viewers, Much Lower Than Kickoff to 2016 Cycle
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ABC
Rank: 13
Show: "A Million Little Things"
Network: ABC
18-49 Rating: 2.14
Total Viewers: 8.657 millionAlso Read: Nik Wallenda’s Ratings Fall: ‘Highwire Live’ Nets Practically Half the Viewers of 2012 Special
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CBS
Rank: 12
Show: "Survivor"
Network: CBS
18-49 Rating: 2.17
Total Viewers: 9.658 millionAlso Read: ‘Property Brothers: Forever Home’ Posts HGTV’s Highest-Rated Series Premiere in More Than 2 Years
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NBC
Rank: 11
Show: "AGT: Champions"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 2.24
Total Viewers: 12.394 millionAlso Read: 21 Lowest-Rated Broadcast TV Shows of 2018-19 Season (Photos)
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ABC
Rank: 10
Show: "Modern Family"
Network: ABC
18-49 Rating: 2.26
Total Viewers: 7.552 millionAlso Read: 14 Highest-Rated Broadcast TV Shows of the 2018-19 Season (Photos)
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Fox
Rank: 9
Show: "9-1-1"
Network: Fox
18-49 Rating: 2.28
Total Viewers: 9.916 millionAlso Read: 11 Highest-Rated Broadcast TV Shows to Go Off the Air During the 2018-19 Season – So Far (Photos)
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NBC
Rank: 8
Show: "Manifest"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 2.35
Total Viewers: 10.913 millionAlso Read: 11 Lowest-Rated Broadcast TV Shows of the 2018-19 Season That Have Been Renewed – So Far (Photos)
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ABC
Rank: 7
Show: "The Bachelor"
Network: ABC
18-49 Rating: 2.41
Total Viewers: 7.923 millionAlso Read: Live TV Musicals Ranked by Ratings, From ‘Rent’ to ‘Grease’ (Photos)
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ABC
Rank: 6
Show: "The Good Doctor"
Network: ABC
18-49 Rating: 2.48
Total Viewers: 12.479 millionAlso Read: ‘Game of Thrones’ Finale Burns Up Series Record With 19.3 Million Viewers
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CBS
Rank: 5
Show: "Young Sheldon"
Network: CBS
18-49 Rating: 2.61
Total Viewers: 14.897 million -
ABC
Rank: 4
Show: "Grey's Anatomy"
Network: ABC
18-49 Rating: 2.73
Total Viewers: 10.008 million -
NBC
Rank: 3
Show: "This Is Us"
Network: NBC
18-49 Rating: 3.52
Total Viewers: 13.147 millionAlso Read: TV Ratings in 2019: What Counts as a Streaming ‘View’?
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Fox
Rank: 2
Show: "The Masked Singer"
Network: Fox
18-49 Rating: 3.78
Total Viewers: 11.566 millionAlso Read: FITE TV Boss Is ‘Optimistic’ About NJPW ‘Southern Showdown’ PPV Sales – Despite 5 AM Start Time
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CBS
Rank: 1
Show: "Big Bang Theory"
Network: CBS
18-49 Rating: 3.82
Total Viewers: 18.470 millionAlso Read: Are TV Mega Deals Worth It? Why Studios Are Paying So Much for Producing Talent
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NBC/CBS/ABC
Better luck next year, "Chicago Med" (1.86), "NCIS" (1.85) and "The Bachelorette" (1.77).
Also Read: Ratings: NBC’s ‘Songland’ Gets Highest-Rated Alternative Summer Series Debut Since June 2017
Just one summer series makes the cut
It's July 1, which means 2019 is officially at its midway point. In honor of the very unofficial holiday, TheWrap has ranked the 19 highest-rated broadcast TV shows of the calendar year.
We've ranked them by Nielsen ratings among adults 18-49, which is the demographic most targeted by the advertisers on broadcast entertainment programs. We've also included each show's total-viewer averages as an alternative metric.
One last note: These numbers include a week's worth of delayed viewing where available, though that pretty much would only impact an episode or two of summer hit "America's Got Talent." Our data set runs from Jan. 1 through June 27, to be perfectly exact.
Tony Maglio
TV Editor • tony.maglio@thewrap.com • Twitter: @tonymaglio