CBS Scripted Premieres Stay Strong In MP35 As ‘Tracker’ Continues To Lead The Charge

The Justin Hartley-led series is leading the charge for the network’s scripted premieres in 35-day multi-platform viewing, just as it was in seven-day numbers.

The second episode of the series, which aired during CBS’ premiere week for all other scripted programming, is up to 17.3M multi-platform viewers after 35 days, adding another 5M viewers from its seven-day audience.

CBS is looking to the second episode of Tracker for its premiere week ratings, since the series debuted after Super Bowl LVIII. While the premiere has amassed an impressive 33M viewers since it aired after the Kansas City Chiefs’ second consecutive win, it’s not necessarily a great indicator of how the series has been performing overall. That second episode, though, is a better metric for the audience the series retained as it settled into that Sunday primetime slot.

According to CBS, Tracker is also the network’s most-streamed series to date on Paramount+. The series is also up 109% in 35-day viewing compared to that time slot last year, which was held by East New York.

Overall, CBS is up 10% year-over-year for the week of February 12 to 18 versus that week in 2023 with five series reaching an audience of 12M viewers or more in the 35-day window.

Of course, this is aided by the return of many of the network’s heavy hitters after the dual strikes, considering Young Sheldon (13.6M viewers), NCIS (12.9M viewers), Ghosts (12.9M viewers) and FBI (12.3M viewers) were the other four shows to surpass that threshold.
Young Sheldon actually soared past NCIS in the 35-day viewing after the procedural had settled into second place for premiere week in the seven-day window.

Two more series, Fire Country and Blue Bloods, managed to make it past the 11M viewer mark, while another three — NCIS: Hawai’i, FBI: Most Wanted and The Equalizer — hit 10M or more.

All of these series premieres added about one to two million viewers from their seven-day numbers, which is still a hefty audience increase considering they were all past the 10M mark after that first week.

Viewing generally slows down considerably for broadcast shows after the first week, because much of the audience still tends to watch one episode before the next airs — even if they aren’t watching live.