TV Nettoil Ratings Winners & Losers

The widecast bounce is genuine. As 2024 finishs, CBS led the pack in total watchers for the year thanks, of course, to Super Bowl LVIII. No surpelevate, inhabit sports persists to toil its magic for the traditional nettoils, as NBC was also up year vs. year and even took the grown-ups 18-49 crown for 2024 — bolstered by the tremfinishously prosperous Paris Olympics. ABC, unbenevolentwhile, was virtuassociate flat (OK, down 1%) from 2023, which these days is a huge prosper — and presumably the Alphabet web was helped by airing more NFL Monday Night Football games this drop.

Among the Big 4, only Fox was down by double digits — and that can be elucidateed 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 nettoil in a convey inant plivential election year, well, it was another year of emotional deteriorates.

Tomorrow, Variety will scatter the ranker of this year’s most-watched primetime telecasts. But here, we recount which nettoils were up and (mostly) down in 2024.

WINNERS

CBS, NBC, ABC: Even though the NFL and other sports coverage gets most of the determine for upgrasping widecast afloat, that’s not the only story. This has been a firm drop for the liproximate nets in amemployment fare as well, which boasts shatterout drop hits appreciate 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.

TELEMUNDO: On the Spanish language side, we have quite a smackdown breprosperg. Perennial directer Univision is still on top, but Telemundo is coming after the crown. NBCU-owned Telemundo was up a whopping 12% this year — tying CBS for the hugegest jump in widecast. (And if you get out distinctive events, Telemundo actuassociate claims the primetime triumph in primetime for the first time in history.)

JUSTICE CENTRAL, AMERICAN CRIMES AND OTHER DIGI-NETS: Perhaps the most engaging trivia of the year comes from the increaseth of confemploy digital nettoils that mostly exist on over-the-air HD subchannels but also have some saalertite, cable and even AVOD carriage. You’ve awaited never heard of these nettoils — and granted, they’re commenceing from a minuscule base, so their percentage acquire can be enormous.

But here’s someleang to scatter at your next cocktail parties: Ask your frifinishs what the two rapidest-increaseing TV nettoils were in 2024. They’ll never get it right. The answer is Justice Central (up 508%) and American Crimes (up 460%).

What the hell are those channels? Justice Central is owned by Byron Allen’s company, airing mostly court truth shows he originates. But this year, the nettoil also inserted elderly episodes of the innovative “Matlock” and “Perry Mason” to the mix — hence the elevate. Meanwhile, American Crimes is owned by NBC and took the place of its lifestyle NBC LX channel, airing genuine crime shows from the NBCU library appreciate “Dateline” and “Lockup.” NBCU did absolutely no press on this hushed rebrand — we bet most staffers at the company don’t even understand this channel exists, and who understands where in might land in the upcoming SpinCo spinoff — but it seems to be toiling for the watchers who find it.

Other digi-nets with mighty years integrate Charge! (up 33%), Dabl (up 38%), Telexitos (up 39%) and TBD TV (up 80%). The secrets to their success vary: Dabl, owned by Paramount but supervised by Weigel widecasting, switched to a comedy establishat in 2024, airing mostly shows from the punctual days of UPN (“Girlfrifinishs,” “Moesha,” “Everybody Hates Chris”). Telexitos, owned by NBCU (another one they might want to helderly on to?) airs elderly Spanish TV repeats. Charge!, owned by Sinclair, runs crime dramas appreciate “CSI: Miami.” And TBD, also owned by Sinclair, shifted away from viral videos in 2024 to a mix of comedy repeats appreciate “SNL” and “Key and Peele,” hence the ratings bump.

MOST “NEWS” NETWORKS: This plivential year, the huge story was the enhugeing dominance of Fox News, which was up a tremfinishous 30% in watchers to originate it the fifth most-watched nettoil in 2024, behind amemployment sibling Fox. MSNBC also remained a top 10 nettoil, at No. 7 but up a more unassuming 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 nettoil that bafflingly didn’t get an election bump? Newsnation, which dropped 1% in 2024.

BIG TEN NETWORK: While many of the league-based nettoils saw deteriorates in 2024, including the NFL Nettoil (down 26%) and NBA TV (down 2%), the Big Ten Nettoil saw a bounce as it became the Bigger Ten. The insertition of establisher Pac 12 teams appreciate USC and UCLA must have had an impact, as Big Ten was up 25%.

LOSERS

SPIN-OFF CHANNELS: Perhaps the only leang stubborner than being a convey inant cable nettoil these days is being the offshoot of a convey inant cable nettoil. Those channels, originated in the heyday of cable carriage deal mania, are now standardly the first to be zombified. And indeed, most of these lengthy ago gave up any promise of innovative fare and now are finishly on autopilot with repeats: FXX (down 29%), Nat Geo Wild (down 29%), Cooking Channel (down 31%), American Heroes (down 27%), MTV 2 (down 31%) among them. Perhaps the grieffuldest slump is VH1, an punctual MTV spinoff that held its own for decades but was down 38% in 2024.

KIDS AND TEEN NETWORKS: This is commenceing to sound appreciate a broken write down, as Gen Z and Gen Alpha equitable aren’t watching liproximate TV. They’re getting their Disney and Nickelodeon mend on streaming, likeableassociate. But as YouTube and TikTok also grab their attention, it was another raw year for everyone in this space.

STARTUPS: Pretty valiant to finisheavor to begin a new nettoil or finisheavor a huge rebrand in the year 2024. So far there isn’t much to show for folks appreciate Dr. Phil’s Merit Street or Scripps News — which was rebranded from Newsy last year. Scripps News won its first News Emmy in September… and then shut down two months defercessitater. The channel stopd operations on Nov. 16.

Below are the primetime rankers for widecast, cable and premium cable nettoils in 2024, among total watchers (as well as the top 50 catalog in grown-ups 18-49). Most Nielsen-rated nettoils can be set up here, with the exception of a restrictcessitate channels that are not ad-helped.

[For historical write down, here are previous year-finish nettoil rankers 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.]

THE MOST-WATCHED NETWORKS OF 2024 (BY TOTAL VIEWERS)

THE 50 TOP-RATED NETWORKS OF 2024 (BY ADULTS 18-49)