Sports in general and the NFL in particular dominated television viewing in 2022. According to Forbes citing recently released data from Nielsen, sports accounted for 94 of the 100 most watched telecasts last year. The NFL alone accounted for a record 82 of the 100 telecasts, up from 75 in 2021. The remaining top- rated sporting events for the year were five college football games, three World Cup matches, two college basketball games, one Winter Olympics (airing after the Super Bowl) and the Kentucky Derby.
Four of the remaining six telecasts were live news events that aired on multiple channels; the State of the Union address, mid-term election results, the first telecast of the January 6 committee hearing and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky address at U.S. Capitol. Rounding out the top 100 were the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Oscars. There were no World Series games or NBA Finals games that cracked the top 100.
Sports has been rightfully called the last sustainable remnant of linear television’s once dominance.
According to Sportico, the most watched scripted entertainment telecast of the year was the premiere Yellowstone’s fifth season which aired across several Paramount Global networks. The program averaged only 12.5 million viewers. The highest rated entertainment program for all of 2022 was the FBI on CBS which averaged a paltry 7.2 million viewers.
Front Office Sports notes in March 2021, the NFL locked in its current media rights for an astounding $113 billion over 11 seasons.
The NFL once again dominated television this season, accounting for 88 of the top 100 most-watched TV programs of 2022. The broadcast networks all saw significant bumps.
Fox averaged 19.4 million NFL viewers, a 4% increase from last season. The Sunday afternoon “America’s Game of the Week” averaged 24.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched window on TV for the 14th straight year.
CBS averaged 18.5 million viewers — the network’s most-watched regular season in seven years.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” averaged a total audience delivery of 19.9 million viewers, up 3% from 2021. “SNF” is on track to become the most-watched show in prime time for a record 12th straight season.
ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” — revamped with announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman — actually experienced a 2% decrease from 2021, averaging 13.8 million viewers. However, that’s in part due to the data’s exclusion of the highly anticipated (and enormously well-viewed) Bengals-Bills Week 17 matchup canceled in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s medical emergency.
ESPN will get some compensation in the form of the juiciest matchup of the first round: a Monday night showdown between the Buccaneers and Cowboys.
Despite its continued ratings dominance, NFL viewership declined for the 2022 regular season. Across all viewing sources, the average audience totaled 16.7M, compared to 17.1M in 2021. The primary reason for the slight drop-off was Amazon Prime’s exclusive coverage of Thursday Night Football replacing the tri-cast of Fox, the NFL Network and Amazon Prime last season.
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