Summer TV is in full swing, with reality series like “Love Island USA” and “Bachelor in Paradise” and splashy dramas like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “The Hunting Wives” stirring up strong ratings, while action series like “Untamed” and “Squid Game” continue to generate solid numbers.
First off, let’s get “Squid Game” out of the way. Season 3 is undeniably the biggest hit of the summer — streaming or otherwise — logging 60.1 million views in its first three days on Netflix, more than any other show has secured in that timeframe. The season has tallied up 134.7 million views to date, rivaling the all-time viewership for “Adolescence,” which stands at 142.6 million, and “Stranger Things 4,” at 140.7 million.
Coming second to “Squid Game” on Nielsen’s streaming charts, Peacock’s “Love Island USA” boasted a record-breaking audience in Season 7 after last year’s installment caught the attention of reality lovers across the board. “Love Island” was the No. 2 most-watched streaming program for the weeks of June 23 and June 30 with 1.78 billion and 1.7 billion viewing minutes, respectively.
Viewing of the show has steadily grown from 1.1 billion viewing minutes the week of June 9.
Also making a strong return was “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” which scored 25 million viewers globally in its first week on Prime Video with the drop of its first two episodes on July 16, according to internal data provided to press. The third and final season of the YA series is already outpacing its previous seasons, soaring over Season 2 by 40% and tripling from Season 1 within the same timeframe.
Prime Video also saw some streaming success with YA adaptation “We Were Liars,” which made it into Nielsen’s top 10 streaming originals list for the first three weeks since its June 18 release, so far peaking during the week of June 23 with 420 million viewing minutes.
Similarly, HBO’s “The Gilded Age” has been on a hot streak this summer as it scored viewership series highs for three consecutive weeks, with Episode 6 scoring 4.5 million viewers across HBO and Max in its first three days. The drama series, which has already been renewed for a fourth season, is now tracking 25% higher than Season 2, with each episode this season seeing week-over-week audience growth.
The Eric Bana-led “Untamed” also made a strong debut as Netflix’s top TV show for the week of July 14 with 24.6 million views, which grew to 26.1 million views in its second week.
And a surprise hit this week has been “The Hunting Wives,” the racy Texas-set drama series which made a last-minute shift from Starz to Netflix. The eight-episode series scored 5.2 million views on Netflix on its first week, becoming the No. 3 most-watched TV series behind “Untamed” and “Amy Bradley Is Missing,” and looks likely to keep growing into next week.
While the summer translates to slower months for broadcast, unscripted series are main attraction for broadcast networks and seem to keep audiences occupied just fine. “America’s Got Talent,” which ranks as the No. 1 summer broadcast show, is averaging 4.7 million viewers to date on NBC while “Celebrity Family Feud” scored 4.16 million viewers on ABC for its premiere, dipping to 3.84 million viewers and 3.78 million viewers, respectively, in the following weeks.
After premiering its 27th season on July 10, “Big Brother” has reached nearly 26 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+, with multiplatform viewership for the first two weeks averaging 4.8 million viewers season-to-date, up 9% from last summer’s first two weeks. Overall, “Big Brother” ranks as the No. 2 summer broadcast show.
ABC’s “Bachelor in Paradise” debuted to 3.73 million viewers after seven days of viewing across ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms, and the dating show has consistently been the top linear program of Monday night among adults 18-49.
Hallmark’s “Christmas in July” special soars
Hallmark annual “Christmas in July” special boosted the channel to rank as the No. 1 most-watched entertainment cable network on weekends throughout July among key demographics, including households, total viewers, women 18+ and viewers 18+ in primetime, and among households and women 18+ in total day. Overall, “Christmas in July” programming reached 12.6 million total viewers.
Additionally, the network’s four new original movie premieres ranked as the top entertainment cable each Saturday during “Christmas in July.”
WNBA keeps growing
Demand for the WNBA just keeps growing, with the July 27 matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky scoring 1.5 million viewers, up 17% from last year’s regular season average on ABC. The game ranks as the No. 6 most-watched regular-season game on ABC ever as well as the No. 4 most-watched regular season game on ABC this season.
Cable News Sees Year-Over-Year Decrease, But Fox News Still Leads the Way
Cable news saw a double-digit decrease in viewership across the board when compared to last July. MSNBC saw the smallest decrease, down 27% year-over-year to reach an average 865,000 total viewers in July, while CNN fell 43% to reach 497,000 viewers and Fox News was down 30% to 2.41 million total viewers.
The year-over-year decreases for July were higher for the key 25-54 demographic, with Fox News down 48% (257,000 demo viewers), CNN down 55% (92,000) and MSNBC down 40% (81,000).
Still, Fox News scored enough total viewers in primetime to outpace the average primetime viewership of the broadcast networks (which are experiencing slower months without scripted series and fall sports) with NBC averaging 2.1 million viewers while CBS and ABC both brought in an average 2 million viewers, respectively.
