‘Tracker,’ ‘Bluey,’ and a Big Scripted Deficit: The Hidden Numbers of the 2023-24 TV Season
This is a reality TV season that’s not a full season for a bunch of shows. It’s a season where an Australian rugby player became the biggest thing in streaming, when women’s sports (especially basketball) made huge strides, when Jon Stewart returned from behind the desk, and when the NFL dominated the TV landscape.
Okay, that last one is true of every season in the past, oh, 15 seasons or so (at least). But what about the other seasons? Those seasons are unique to this year, and even if they’re discussed a lot, there are still some other data points that can be mined from them. Here are some of the hidden numbers behind the 2023-24 TV season — starting with a few that are truly hidden.
Estimates of the number of scripted TV episodes on ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC that will not air this season because the networks failed to reach agreements with striking writers and actors until the fall, months after production on most shows typically begins (and even though the companies have given unions most of what they asked for). That number comes from comparing the episode counts of 38 veteran series on the networks this season to last season. The actual number may not be that high, since the networks don’t typically release episode counts anymore, and there’s no guarantee that a 22-episode show from last season will be in the same order this season. But even taking those unknowns into account, it’s not an exaggeration to say that dozens of episodes of those shows (and cast and crew salaries) have been lost.
40%-50%: The percentage of viewers of a given comedy or drama who watch an episode in the seven days after it airs, whether by streaming or DVR. Again, that’s an estimate based on the limited data that broadcasters provide about their shows’ multiplatform performance. While networks are certainly sharing those numbers with advertisers, streaming data remains frustratingly hidden in most cases. The question is why? Networks only release internal streaming numbers when they have a particularly good story to tell, but that story is a good one across the board: Some shows double their audiences in their first week, and streaming audiences are much younger than on-air audiences. If you’re trying to make an argument for your future, why not shout those facts out over and over instead of just mentioning them as an occasional fact? The number of minutes American viewers have spent streaming Bluey on Disney+ since the start of the traditional TV season on September 25, 2023, according to Nielsen streaming ratings (at least through the end of April, the most recent week for which figures are available). That’s about 2.4 billion more minutes than Super Bowl LVIII—the most-watched single telecast in U.S. television history—amassed for CBS in February. The Bluey episode “The Sign” was also the most-talked-about episode of a preschool series in recent memory. The corresponding audiences for the NCAA women’s basketball championship, the NCAA men’s basketball championship, and the most-watched NBA game of the season so far (Game 7 of the Timberwolves-Nuggets playoff series). This year marks the first time the women’s March Madness finals have surpassed the men’s finals, with Iowa star Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking scoring season and an undefeated South Carolina team helping to drive big audiences throughout the season. (That effect has carried over into the early part of the WNBA campaign, which recorded its three biggest TV audiences in more than 20 years in May.) The women’s NCAA finals are also likely to end before the NBA Finals, which hasn’t topped 18.9 million viewers for a single game since 2017. NCIS: Hawai’i’s average viewership this season, which made it the most-watched series to be canceled, ranks 14th among all television (excluding pre- and post-game sports telecasts) this season. The first number is the average viewership for Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart, the most-watched cable series (based on Nielsen linear ratings) this season. The second is how many people watched last season’s No. 1 cable show, Yellowstone, which will return (and surely reclaim its cable crown) in November for its (final? At least in this iteration?) half-season.
1.26 million: The largest audience (not including simulcasts) for The Daily Show since Jon Stewart’s surprise return to the late-night show
ABC this season. The Golden Bachelor was the network’s breakout show, and the median age of its viewers is pretty similar to the median age of its contestants. For The Bachelor, the ratings have improved from last season, but the median age of the show’s viewers is closer to that of Joey Graziadei and his bachelorette parents.
3.04 billion: The most total minutes watched by any streaming show in a single week this season, Netflix’s Fool Me Once—based on the Harlan Coben novel—in the first week of 2024. The thriller exploded and quickly, racking up 6.5 billion minutes watched in its first three weeks before falling out of the top 10 three weeks later.
