TV viewership declined 6.4% in the month of February after enjoying a two-year January high largely driven by one of the most popular NFL playoff seasons in recent memory, new data from Nielsen shows, with non-Super Bowl-related broadcast viewership falling a total of 10% for the month.
Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift following the NFL Super Bowl 58 football ... [+]
The overall drop in TV use from February to January was higher than post-football season drops seen in years past (5.7% in 2023 and 5.1% in 2022), Nielsen said in its monthly Gauge report.
The Super Bowl's record-breaking 30 billion viewing hours made Feb. 11 the single day with the most TV viewing since at least May of 2021 and pushed the number of subscribers to CBS streaming service Paramount+ up 24% for the month, according to Nielsen (the number of people who then dropped their subscriptions remains to be seen).
In the month since the big game, CBS series like “Young Sheldon,” “Tracker,” “FBI” and “NCIS” have dominated weekly ratings charts, successes Nielsen says can be attributed to CBS using the game "to get audiences excited for its new season” of shows—though CBS’ police procedurals are often near the top of Nielsen’s weekly rankings even without a Super Bowl bump.
In the four weeks of broadcast data available since the Super Bowl, CBS shows have made up at least five of the top 10 most-streamed programs of each week and CBS shows were in the top 16 slots in the week immediately following the big game.
"Young Sheldon" has been CBS' most popular show with an average audience of 7.26 million each week from Feb. 12 to March 10, followed by NCIS with 7.16 million average viewers and “60 Minutes” at 6.37 million.
Outside of viewing related to the Super Bowl, broadcast viewership dropped 10% overall, slightly higher than the 9.2% decline seen from January to February of last year, and sports viewership dropped 66% in the wake of the NFL playoffs.
19%. That's the percentage of subscribers NBC streamer Peacock lost between January, when it gained users thanks to its exclusive broadcast of an NFL Wildcard game, and February, Nielsen said.
"Young Sheldon" was the most-streamed title across all platforms for the second time in three months. Viewers watched a total of 4.6 billion minutes of the show on Netflix and Max in February. Animated kids show "Bluey" on Disney+ was the second most-streamed show with 4.5 billion minutes, followed by "Grey's Anatomy" on Netflix (3.5 billion) and Netflix original "Griselda" (3.2 billion).
Cable news viewership rose 7% from January to February, largely attributed to election year coverage, Nielsen said. The earliest of the nation's presidential primaries was held in late January and elections continued last month in South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan ahead of Super Tuesday on March 5.