NFL Accounts for 93 of 100 Most-Watched Programs in 2023 - Is It Really Football or Bust from Now On?

Is the NFL the only thing holding linear television together? It sure seems like it. According to Sports Business Journal, pro football accounted for 93 of the most-watched TV shows in 2023. College football took three more slots. That leaves just four non-football programs in the Top 100.

The most-watched event, as you might imagine, was the Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl in February. The NFL playoffs also filled up the top slots. But even regular season football games appear in the 30-million-viewer ballpark.

The only non-football programs to appear on the list are the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (No. 23 at 27.35M), President Biden’s State of the Union (No. 37 at 25.39M), the Academy Awards (No. 63 at 18.76M), and the post-Super Bowl debut of “Next Level Chef” (No. 93 at 15.66M).

Notably, two streaming-exclusive games cracked the Top 100: Prime Video’s Black Friday Seahawks-Cowboys game and the Sept. 14 Vikings-Eagles game.

Just 10 years ago, shows like “The Big Bang Theory” and “NCIS” could pull more than 20 million viewers. But that was when Netflix had around 30 million domestic subscribers. Today, a wide array of first-class SVOD services, YouTube, video games, and social media sites are splintering our attention bandwidth.

Three factors set the NFL apart from every other TV event: scarcity, immediacy, and predictable availability.

MLB offers 162 regular season games. The NBA and NHL each have 82. For the NFL, it’s just 17 games per team in the regular season. Every game truly matters to a team’s fortunes. Missing your team’s latest game matters more than missing the most recent episode of “Young Sheldon.” There are high stakes every Sunday.

Football is also a live event. Sports always overperform in the ratings because so few people are willing to watch on a DVR. It’s easy to forget a drama or sitcom languishing in your recordings. Football requires your attention in the moment. You’ll sit through commercials in a football game because you want to see the outcome. The only reason you sit through commercials in another show is because you forget to fast-forward your DVR.

Unlike the other three major sports leagues, the NFL offers a largely predictable viewing landscape. Thursdays are on Prime Video. Sunday afternoons are CBS and FOX. Sunday nights are NBC. Monday nights are ESPN. We know when and where to find the games, though that picture is starting to blur a bit.

With those other leagues, games could be nationally televised on several outlets on any day of the week. Or you might have to navigate a rat’s nest of RSNs to try to find your team. The NFL does not have the RSN problem, and that makes it more accessible.

What Can Linear TV Do to Fight Back?

If you owned a major media company, it seems like your best bet is to wait until the NFL rights package expires and then break the bank to land the league. But that’s not possible for every channel. There are only so many games to go around.

So the lesson is to take the NFL’s strengths and apply them to other entertainment. What other events can we make scarce and immediate?

FOX and NBC previously had success with live musicals like “Grease,” “Hairspray,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Annie,” and “The Wiz.” MTV created some landmark musical documents with its “Unplugged” series. Musical events stand a good chance at drawing a live audience, but those performances also hold up with tremendous replay value. If you don’t believe people care about those things, someone paid $6 million for Kurt Cobain’s guitar from “Nirvana: Unplugged.” That’s the most expensive guitar in the world.

It’s time to get creative and offer more one-off events. Those could take the form of concerts or beloved plays or collaborative efforts from well-known performers. Perhaps it’s a weekly spotlight for unknown entertainers to perform within a particular genre. The TV is clogged with showcases like “America’s Got Talent” and “The Voice,” so it’s time to reimagine the amateur platform.

The NFL offers the ultimate FOMO experience. You want to see the plays unfold in real-time. So what other programming can be created that would leave audiences feeling left out if they missed the moment? It’s time to get wild and experiment. Traditional sitcoms and dramas may have a place in the schedule, but audiences just aren’t interested anymore.

Most-Watched Programs of 2023