The broadcast bounce is real. As 2024 ends, CBS led the pack in total viewers for the year thanks, of course, to Super Bowl LVIII. No surprise, live sports continues to work its magic for the traditional networks, as NBC was also up year vs. year and even took the adults 18-49 crown for 2024 — bolstered by the tremendously successful Paris Olympics. ABC, meanwhile, was virtually flat (OK, down 1%) from 2023, which these days is a big win — and presumably the Alphabet web was helped by airing more NFL Monday Night Football games this fall.
Variety reports among the Big 4, only Fox was down by double digits — and that can be explained by the fact that it ran the Super Bowl in 2023, so of course it’s going to be down. In cable, unless you were a news network in a major presidential election year, well, it was another year of dramatic declines.
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| Ratings Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN |
📺CBS, NBC, ABC: Even though the NFL and other sports coverage gets most of the credit for keeping broadcast afloat, that’s not the only story. This has been a solid fall for the linear nets in entertainment fare as well, which boasts breakout fall hits like CBS’ “Matlock,” ABC’s “High Potential” and NBC’s “Happy’s Place.” Broadcast still matters in 2024, whereas cable… well, we’ll get to that in a second.
📺MOST “NEWS” NETWORKS: This presidential year, the big story was the expanding dominance of Fox News, which was up a tremendous 30% in viewers to make it the fifth most-watched network in 2024, behind entertainment sibling Fox. MSNBC also remained a top 10 network, at No. 7 but up a more modest 4%. Despite its difficulties, CNN could still find solace at rising 20% and landing at No. 15. Also up 31% was Newsmax, although still at No. 38. The one network that bafflingly didn’t get an election bump? Newsnation, which dropped 1% in 2024.
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