In another turbulent year for TV, there were plenty of shows, movies and other programming that broke through the noise, from Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” to Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” to most everything Taylor Sheridan touches.
It’s no surprise that Netflix’s biggest tentpole releases, including “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things,” both of which ended their runs this year, brought in massive audiences that toppled everything beyond their beloved first seasons, and even set records for the streamer.
But for linear and cable shows that aren’t such juggernauts, the secret for success seemed to lie in incorporating a streaming element as a companion for a linear broadcast, a strategy that benefited ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and several awards shows that experienced viewership growth despite cord-cutting being an ever-present threat.
And even as linear channels and cable continue to take a smaller piece of the viewership pie, there are some tried and true things that will bring in ratings, including sports and select shows like CBS’ “Tracker” and “Matlock.”
Netflix tentpole shows
This year saw the return of several tentpole shows for Netflix, including “Wednesday,” “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things,” all of which brought in massive audiences for the streamer.
With the first season of “Wednesday” and “Squid Game” ranking as Netflix’s most-watched English-language and non-English language shows to date, respectively, the debut of “Wednesday” Season 2 and Season 3 of “Squid Game” lived up to their predecessors with similarly massive debuts. “Squid Game” Season 2 and Season 3 are Netflix’s No. 2 and No. 3 most-watched non-English-language shows to date with 192.6 million views and 145.8 million views to date, while “Wednesday” Season 2 quickly made its way into the English-language TV top 10 list, where it sits at No. 4 with 119.3 million views, behind just “Wednesday” Season 1, “Adolescence” — more on that later — and “Stranger Things 4.”
Likewise, “Stranger Things” Season 5 already broke records with the Thanksgiving release of Volume 1, which scored a whopping 59.6 million views in its first five days on Netflix, securing the biggest premiere week for an English-language show in the history of the streamer. “Stranger Things” is poised to break even more records as the show rolls out its final episodes on Christmas Day and its finale on New Year’s Eve.
On the other end of that spectrum, however, were some tentpole series that didn’t do as well, including “The Witcher,” which had a lackluster debut of 7.4 million views for its opening weekend as it returned for its Season 4 with Liam Hemsworth taking over the lead role as Geralt of Rivia from Henry Cavill. Likewise, “The Recruit,” which made a splash with its first season in 2022, debuted to just 5.9 million views in January, seemingly overshadowed by “The Night Agent.”
“KPop Demon Hunters”
While not a TV series, another tentpole program that took over Netflix was “KPop Demon Hunters,” which took the world by storm ever since it hit the service in June. While the movie debuted to just 9.2 million views during the week of June 16, it grew to 24.2 million views by the following week, eventually growing to become Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time by August.
While the initial viewership is impressive on its own, what’s especially remarkable about “KPop Demon Hunters” is its longevity: the movie has been within Netflix’s weekly top 10 movie list for 25 weeks to date (even the biggest shows might fall out of the top 10 after their fourth week), and usually ranks within each week’s top three movies. To date, “KPop Demon Hunters” has logged 325.1 million views.
“Dancing With the Stars”
While “Dancing With the Stars” saw a notable ratings boost as it began courting Gen Z last season, the ABC ballroom dancing competition show doubled down on its efforts to bring the younger generation into the fold by casting Gen Z darlings like influencer Alix Earle, Robert Irwin and not one, but two stars from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
The casting paid off tenfold, with the Season 34 premiere scoring the strongest premiere performance the show has seen in five years with 5.5 million viewers, and grew steadily the following weeks, though it slid down a tad due to the carriage dispute between Disney and YouTube TV. The finale scored 9.2 million viewers across ABC and Disney+, according to preliminary live-plus-same-day Nielsen panel data, the biggest audience the show has seen since its Season 29 finale in 2020 and show’s most-watched finale in nine years.
Given that most other network reality competition shows have shedded viewers from a decade ago amid declining linear viewership, the growth for “Dancing With the Stars,” both among total and younger viewers — the finale scored a 2.6 rating among adults 18-34, the show’s strongest performance in that demo in 14 years — is especially impressive.
Sports
Sports are the gift that keeps giving for TV ratings, with some of the year’s biggest sports events seeing ratings growth this year. In February, the Super Bowl LIX scored an all-time high viewership with 127.7 million viewers, setting the tone for viewership growth across the World Series, the NBA Finals and NCAA March Madness, among many others.
The World Series scored the highest viewership since 2017 with 15.71 million average viewers across seven games, which, of course, benefited from a full seven-game series. That nail-biter Game 7, which drew in the Series’ biggest audience with 25.98 million viewers thanks in part to a riveting ending that went extra innings.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty”
As Prime Video closed out the TV adaptation of Jenny Han’s beloved book trilogy with the third and final season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” that spanned the summer and fall, chatter surrounding the love triangle between Belly, Jeremiah and Conrad took over social media as fans obsessed over the slow burn yearning between Belly and Conrad and speculated whether Han might rewrite the ending for the series.
The social media attention segued seamlessly into the biggest viewership the show has seen, with the two-episode Season 3 premiere on July 16 scoring 25 million viewers globally in its first week on Prime Video, according to internal data from the service, outpacing that of Season 2 by 40% and tripled its viewership from Season 1 within the same timeframe. In its first 70 days and first seven days post-finale, the season reached 70 million viewers on Prime Video — a 65% increase over Season 2 over the same 70-day period — and became the most-watched TV season ever among women ages 18 to 34.
And, when using viewership data from Nielsen streaming charts, the show logged a whopping 6.57 billion viewing minutes over the course of its two-month rollout.
“The Gilded Age”
While “The Gilded Age” hadn’t made too much of a viewership splash for HBO during its first two seasons, its third season began to pick up the pace this summer as it scored several series highs, beginning with Episode 4, which featured the pivotal wedding of fan-favorite Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) to Hector Vere, 5th Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). After Episode 4 scored a series high-viewership of 3.8 million viewers, “The Gilded Age” hit new series high for the rest of its rollout for five consecutive weeks, ending with 5 million viewers tuning in for the finale across HBO and Max.
“Love Island USA”
Similar to “Dancing With the Stars,” the Peacock reality dating series began to catch the eyes of mainstream audiences with last year’s Season 6, which was applauded for its casting, including new host and “Vanderpump Rules” star Ariana Madix. With an eager audience ready to consume whatever drama the Fiji series brings, viewership for “Love Island USA” Season 7 was the No. 1 most-watched streaming reality series for two consecutive weeks in early June, according to Nielsen.
Through its six-week run, Season 7 logged 18.4 billion minutes viewed, becoming Peacock’s most-watched original season of all time. According to the streamer, 49% of the audience this season watched the show for the first time, while nearly 30% of the “Love Island” Season 7 audience tuned in on their mobile devices, paving the way as another Gen Z favorite.
“South Park”
As “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker delivered a headline-grabbing season of the beloved adult animated show, record-breaking viewership followed. The Season 27 premiere, which made a splash as the creators poked fun at Donald Trump and his settlement with Comedy Central parent company Paramount Global over a “60 Minutes” lawsuit, brought in 5.9 million viewers across Comedy Central and Paramount+ in its first three days, and scored the show’s biggest linear season premiere share since 1999 with a 9.20 share.
Viewership for Episode 2 grew to 6.2 million multiplatform viewers across Comedy Central and Paramount+ in its first three days, and streaming was up 49% when compared to the previous episode. “South Park” ranks as the No. 1 series on cable in 2025 thus far among adults 18-34, according to Nielsen big data plus panel data through Dec. 10.
Awards shows
While awards shows ratings plummeted amid the COVID-19 pandemic and continued cord-cutting, most major shows have gained back, and some even improved upon, their audience as they began expanding to streaming and other platforms. Ratings for the 2025 Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, Tonys and VMAs were all up compared to last year, with the VMAs scoring a six-year viewership high as it simulcast on CBS for the first time and the Academy Awards brought in the biggest audience the awards show has seen in five years with 19.7 million viewers across ABC and Hulu.
The exception to this trend was the Grammys, which were down 8% from last year, despite both broadcasting live on CBS and live streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.
“Adolescence”
Another splashy Netflix premiere was “Adolescence,” the devastating four-episode limited series that put a face to incel culture and the effects of toxic masculinity. It debuted to an impressive 24.3 million views in its first four days on the streamer, and went on to spent 10 weeks in the TV top 10 list. “Adolescence” now stands as the No. 2 most-watched TV show to date on Netflix with 142.6 million views, behind only “Wednesday” Season 1.
CBS — specifically “Tracker” and “Matlock”
While CBS’ spot as the most-watched broadcast network hasn’t been in contention for a while (the Paramount Global-owned company just spent its 17th consecutive season as the top broadcast network), CBS achieved an impressive feat as it became the top broadcast network in 35-day multiplatform viewing for the 2024-2025 season in Nielsen’s first full season releasing competitive multiplatform data.
Unsurprisingly, “Tracker” and “Matlock” were the network’s big winners, with the Justin Hartley-led series ending the season as the most-watched broadcast show with an average 17.5 million multiplatform viewers, while the Kathy Bates drama series came next with an average 16.1 million multiplatform viewers.
The shows’ dominance continued into their return this fall, with multiplatform viewing numbers from the 2025-26 season through Nov. 9 showing “Tracker” as the top broadcast show with 14.2 million views while “Matlock” came in the No. 3 spot with 10.1 million viewers as ABC’s “High Potential” edged into second place.
“SNL50”
As “SNL” celebrated its historic 50th season in early 2025, the NBC sketch show brought in an audience to match, with “SNL” Season 50 averaging 8.1 million viewers across all platforms — a 12% increase from Season 49 — becoming the most-watched since Season 47.
“SNL” capped off its history-making season with several anniversary specials that all brought in notable numbers, with “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” and “Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music” reaching 50 million viewers across all platforms.
Notably, “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” scored an impressive 14.8 million viewers across NBC and Peacock and scored a 2.53 rating in the 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewing figures and internal streaming data, and went on to average 22.8 million total viewers across all platforms in its first 35 days.
Taylor Sheridan
From “Yellowstone” to “Landman,” Taylor Sheridan’s content continues to be a ratings winner for Paramount. After the “Yellowstone” series finale became the most-watched episode in the history of the show with 11.4 million viewers, 2025 saw new seasons of “1923,” “Landman,” Tulsa King” and “Mayor of Kingstown,” all of which scored impressive audiences.
This spring, “1923” closed out its second season with a ratings bang as the Season 2 finale scored 14 million global viewers in its first seven days, becoming the series’ most-watched episode ever, while viewership for the full season was up 46% from Season 1. As “Tulsa King” launched into its third season this fall, the Paramount+ drama appeared on the Nielsen top 10 streaming charts for five consecutive weeks, most recently appearing as the No. 7 streaming original series during the week of Oct. 20 with 469 million minutes.
Another standout on the Sheridan front was “Landman.” Its Season 2 premiere episode scored over 9.2 million viewers in the first two days on Paramount+ — up 262% from the Season 1 premiere — becoming the most-watched premiere for any original series for Paramount+.
With Sheridan one of the only sure bets in TV right now, the prolific TV creator was top of mind for NBCUniversal, who managed to poach him for both on the TV and film side.
