Ratings Roundup: NFL Playoff Rounds Secure Top Viewed Events Across All Networks

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, ESPN’s megacast of College Football Playoff National Championship secures the most viewed championship in 11 years with over 30 million viewers; Big Ten Network has best start on record; and more

“NFL on CBS” Makes History With the Most-Watched Saturday NFL Playoff Game on Record, Including Peak of More Than 51 Million Viewers

• CBS Sports’ Presentation of Bills-Broncos is the Most-Watched Saturday NFL Playoff Game Ever – including Primetime Games – with 39.597 Million Viewers, Up +17% vs. Last Year’s Comparable Early Saturday Divisional Playoff (Texans-Chiefs, 33.760 M, ABC/ESPN). Previous Saturday Record (in Any Time Slot) was 37.543 M for Packers-49ers in Primetime on FOX on 1/10/24. Previous Saturday Record for the Early Window was 35.601 M for Saints-49ers on FOX on 1/14/12; this year’s game shattered that record by 4 M viewers.
• Denver’s Victory Peaked in OT with 51.284 Million Viewers. Overtime (7:45-8:15 PM ET) Averaged 50.214 Million Viewers.
• Bills-Broncos is the Most-Watched Saturday Telecast on Any Network Since the 1994 Winter Olympics on CBS in Primetime (40.816 M, 2/19/94). It is the Most-Watched Saturday Afternoon Telecast on Any Network on Record.
• “NFL ON CBS” has its Most-Watched Season through the Divisional Round on Record Averaging 22.313 Million Viewers.

NFL Divisional Round Sets All-Time Viewership Record for ESPN; Texans–Patriots Becomes Most-Watched Event in Company History

With an audience of 38 million viewers, ESPN’s 2026 Divisional Round telecast (Sunday, Jan. 18, 3 p.m. ET) delivered a historic performance, as the Texans–Patriots matchup became the most-watched event in ESPN history, dating back to the network’s launch in 1979. The game also ranks as Disney’s most-watched sporting event outside of the Super Bowl across nearly three decades of live sports coverage.

Airing across ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes, the game averaged 37,965,000 viewers and, across ESPN and ABC alone, 37,907,000 viewers. Both audience figures result in the most-watched ESPN event of all time and Disney’s most-watched sporting event outside Super Bowls. Additional highlights:

• ESPN’s Most-Watched NFL Game Ever: The audience surpasses every NFL game—regular season or postseason—aired on ESPN since the network began televising the NFL in 1987.
• Double-Digit Year-Over-Year Growth: Viewership rose 12% from the 2025 Divisional Round (Texans-Chiefs) and 17% from the 2024 Divisional Round (Texans-Ravens). This marks the third straight year ESPN’s final NFL game of the season has set a new company NFL record.
• Among Disney’s Top Sporting Events: The broadcast surpasses the 2006 Rose Bowl on ABC, becoming Disney’s most-watched sporting event outside of Super Bowls.
• Viewership Peaks at Nearly 45 Million: The telecast peaked at 44.9 million viewers late in the second half (5:45 – 6 p.m.).

Disney’s Most-Watched Program in More Than a Decade
Beyond sports, the game stands as Disney’s most-watched telecast since 2014.

Best Combined Postseason Audience in Three Years
Across ESPN’s two postseason games, the Wild Card and Divisional Round averaged 32.8 million viewers, the highest combined postseason average since ESPN began airing two NFL playoff games three seasons ago, and up 13% year-over-year.

Record-Breaking Finish to ESPN’s 2025–26 Season
This record-setting postseason caps a strong 2025–26 campaign for ESPN, which delivered Monday Night Football’s second most-watched season in the ESPN era. Across 25 games — including MNF, Week 18, and postseason coverage — NFL on ESPN averaged 17.4 million viewers per game.

Postseason NFL Countdown Draws More than Six Million Viewers
Postseason NFL Countdown aired on ABC and ESPN, drawing more than six million viewers for the nearly three-hour pregame show (noon–2:45 p.m. ET). The 6.1 million viewers represent a 26% year-over-year increase, with both editions leading into ESPN’s Divisional Round telecast.

NBC Sports Delivers Its Most Watched NFL Divisional Playoff Game on Record as Rams-Bears Thriller Averages 45.4 Million Viewers on NBC & Peacock

Sunday’s Los Angeles Rams-Chicago Bears thriller at a frigid Soldier Field delivered NBC Sports’ most-watched NFL Divisional Playoff audience on record, with an average of 45.4 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms and NFL Digital platforms, based on official Nielsen Big Data + Panel and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

Led by Matthew Stafford, who passed for 258 yards, and a defense which forced three turnovers, the Rams defeated the Bears 20-17 in overtime. In the win, Los Angeles overcame Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ dazzling fourth-down touchdown pass – while backpedaling near midfield – to Cole Kmet to tie the score with 18 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The touchdown was officially a 14-yard pass, but the ball traveled 51.2 yards in the air, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

The audience for Rams-Bears – which increased in every quarter hour from 8:15 p.m. ET until the game-winning score – peaked in the game’s closing minutes, with an average of 52.6 million viewers from 9:45-10 pm ET.

Rams-Bears (45.4 million viewers) is NBC Sports’ most watched NFL Divisional Playoff on record, since Nielsen’s institution of the People Meter in 1988 – covering a total of 34 games. NBC’s previous most-watched Divisional Playoff (41.1 million viewers) came in Jan. 1994 as Joe Montana threw three second-half TD passes to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a 28-20 victory over fellow Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon and the Houston Oilers.

Led by Peacock, NBC Sports Digital delivered its largest NFL simulstream audience ever (excluding Super Bowls) with an Average Minute Audience of 5.3 million viewers across Peacock, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app, and NFL Digital properties.

Chicago led all markets with a massive 34.7/66 local rating (top markets below). Rams-Bears averaged a 16.3/55 in Los Angeles – up 15% from the 14.2/57 for the Rams-Eagles NFC Divisional Playoff last season on NBC.

This milestone 20th season of NBC’s Sunday Night Football was the most-watched SNF season ever, and culminates with the biggest day in U.S. media – with the presentation of Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. bookended by the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, live and in primetime. NBC broadcasts its 21st Super Bowl, with live streaming coverage on Peacock and the Spanish-language telecast on Telemundo and Universo. Super Bowl LX coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR RAMS-BEARS:

(based on 56 metered markets)

Fox’s Coverage of 49ers at Seahawks Averages Over 30 Million Viewers

Fox’s Saturday night coverage of the 49ers at the Seahawks, a 41–6 blowout win for Seattle, averaged 32 million viewers. According to FOS, That’s down 5% from a comparable Commanders-Lions game last year on Fox and the second straight annual decline for the divisional playoffs in that window.

Historic Back-to-Back Stretch: ESPN Delivers its No. 1 and No. 8 Most-Watched Events Ever on Consecutive Days

In a historic back-to-back stretch, ESPN delivered two of the largest audiences in its nearly 50-year history, reaching more than 80 million fans over an impressive 48-hour span.

On Sunday, January 18, ESPN’s NFL Divisional Round game (Texans-Patriots) drew a record-setting 38 million viewers — ESPN’s most-watched telecast ever. Just 24 hours later, 30.1 million viewers tuned in for the College Football Playoff National Championship (Miami–Indiana) on Monday, January 19, marking the eighth-largest audience in ESPN history.

“The NFL Divisional playoff and the national championship delivered extraordinary back‑to‑back days for ESPN and The Walt Disney Company, showcasing two of the most‑watched events in our history,” says ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. “We are grateful to our partners at the NFL and the College Football Playoff, as these audiences reflect the strength of those relationships and underscore the power of live sports — and the passion of football fans everywhere.”

Across Sunday and Monday, fans consumed 18.7 billion total minutes across ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 — a 28% increase from last season’s Divisional Round game and Championship Monday on the same networks. During this two-day window, ESPN networks captured 60% of all U.S. sports viewership.

Driven by Championship Monday’s performance, ESPN averaged 5.7 million viewers during every minute of programming throughout the day.

Beyond the record-setting averages, ESPN’s Divisional Round broadcast delivered Disney’s most-watched sporting event outside of the Super Bowl. The College Football Playoff National Championship ranked as the most-viewed non-NFL sports telecast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.

College GameDay Built by The Home Depot Closes Out Historic Season With 2.6 Million Viewers Highlighting Hurricanes and Hoosiers

ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot finished a truly historic year as the confetti fell on the 2025-26 college football season, delivering record-breaking audiences across the regular season and the 11-game College Football Playoff. From unprecedented fan engagement to landmark viewership milestones, the show reinforced its position as the preeminent college football pregame show.

College GameDay drove viewership momentum throughout the College Football Playoff, scoring 2.6 million viewers leading into Monday night’s championship matchup, up 45 percent year-over-year and the sixth best postseason episode ever.

CGD at the Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl drew 2.9 million viewers, the third most-watched postseason College GameDay on record. The show averaged 2.4 million viewers across both CFP First Round telecasts, led by 2.6 million viewers on Friday night at Oklahoma (up 87 percent year-over-year with two fewer hours) and 2.2 million viewers on Saturday morning at Texas A&M (up 6 percent year-over-year). In total, the six postseason episodes of College GameDay delivered 2.4 million viewers, up 30 percent year-over-year.

The show in College Station featured the second ever in-stadium edition of Pat McAfee’s Kicking Contest, with 100,000 fans cheering the contestant on. Since its inception in 2023, McAfee has given out $2.9 million to students and $3.35 million to charity, all on his own dime.

Top 10 Postseason College GameDay Episodes All Time

College GameDay had its most-watched regular season ever, averaging 2.7 million viewers over 15 weeks – up 22 percent across the regular season and conference championship weekend – more than doubling the audience of its competition. The season featured the nine most-watched regular season episodes ever, led by Lee Corso’s final show in Week 1 with 4.0 million viewers. Growth was especially strong among women (up 34 percent) and viewers under 25 (up 35 percent). Even without Nielsen Big Data measurement, College GameDay Built by The Home Depot would be up 12 percent across the regular season.

Top 10 Regular Season College GameDay Episodes All Time

Throughout the season, College GameDay Built by The Home Depot amplified its on‑site energy with memorable celebrity guest pickers, musical artists, larger-than-life marketing activations and more. The show’s major live music moments, such as Bailey Zimmerman and Luke Combs at Georgia and Kenny Chesney and Dierks Bentley at Vanderbilt, energized fans in the crowd and television viewers alike. These concerts complemented this season’s roster of celebrity guest pickers, ranging from professional athletes such as Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Aaron Donald, Aidan Hutchinson, Matthew Tkachuk, Alex Smith and Trae Young to entertainers Jelly Roll, Nate Bargatze, Inside The NBA’s Ernie Johnson and Theo Von, and more.

ESPN Marketing utilized multiple activations throughout the season to continue to engage fans on site, including a t-shirt trailer with custom site-specific shirts and its “Big Congrats” campus installation stunt, featuring a massive 12-by-20 foot congratulatory signs at Oklahoma and Texas A&M. All of this combines with GameDay’s storytelling to extend ESPN’s brand across every facet of a football fan’s Saturday.

ESPN’s MegaCast of the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T Delivers 30.1 Million Viewers – the Most-Viewed College Football Game in 11 Years

ESPN’s presentation of the 2025-26 College Football Playoff delivered a blockbuster postseason across all 11 games, headlined by a thriller between No. 10 Miami and top-seeded Indiana that will go down as the most‑watched college football game since January 2015, the second most‑watched title game of the CFP era and the No. 2 cable telecast on record.

The College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T scored 30.1 million viewers, the most-watched college football game since the inaugural CFP National Championship (33.9 million viewers, Oregon/Ohio State, 2014-15) and the second most-watched National Championship of the CFP era. The telecast, which was up 36 percent year-over-year, also ranked as the most-viewed non-NFL sports telecast since the 2016 World Series Game 7. The Hurricanes-Hoosiers showdown ranks as the fourth most-watched college football game in the past 30 years and the eighth most-watched ESPN production all-time. The audience peaked at 33.2 million viewers in the first half.

From start to finish, the expanded Playoff captivated viewers nationwide, with more programs than ever before making their debut in college football’s premier postseason. The 11-game bracket also generated double‑digit year-over-year gains in the Quarterfinals, produced a top‑three all‑time Peach Bowl audience in the Playoff Semifinal, delivered a Quarterfinal audience at the Rose Bowl Game that eclipsed 18 of the previous 22 CFP Semifinals, and posted the two most‑watched First Round games in the early history of the round.

Across all 11 games, the College Football Playoff averaged 16.3 million viewers, up 4 percent year-over-year in the second year of the expanded format. In total, 37 billion minutes were consumed, also up 4 percent year-over-year.

National Championship MegaCast
The marquee matchup between Miami and Indiana delivered ESPN’s second most-watched National Championship MegaCast offering with Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show scoring 1.2 million viewers, the fourth best altcast all-time for college football.

Playoff Semifinals
The CFP Semifinal round averaged 16.8 million viewers. The Playoff Semifinal at the Peach Bowl drew 18.0 million viewers, a top-three audience on record for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, with a peak of 21.4 million in the first half. The Playoff Semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl averaged 15.8 million viewers, peaking at 17.2 million in the final minutes as Miami clinched its berth in the National Championship.

Playoff Quarterfinals
Across four games, the CFP Quarterfinals averaged 19.3 million viewers, up 14 percent year-over-year. The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential averaged 23.9 million viewers (up 13 percent year-over-year) and – at the time – ranked as the second most-watched sports event outside the NFL in the past year, the most-watched non-championship game of the 12‑team CFP era, and larger than 18 of the previous 22 CFP Semifinal audiences. The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic posted 19.0 million viewers (up 37 percent year-over-year), peaking at 21.6 million. The Allstate Sugar Bowl averaged 18.7 million viewers (up 18 percent year-over-year), peaking at 21.4 million. The Capital One Orange Bowl averaged 15.9 million viewers. Quarterfinal performances helped propel ESPN to its third most-watched day ever on January 1, 2026, with the network averaging 9.4 million viewers in the average minute (trailing only New Year’s Day 2015 and 2018).

Playoff First Round
The CFP First Round Presented by Allstate featured strong multi-network performance on ESPN networks and TNT Sports, with the two games on ESPN and ABC averaging 14.9 million viewers, up 6 percent year-over-year – representing the two most-watched games in the two-year history of this round and, at the time, the fifth- and sixth-most-watched college football games of the 2025-26 season.

Playoff Quarterfinals
Across four games, the CFP Quarterfinals averaged 19.3 million viewers, up 14 percent year-over-year. The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential averaged 23.9 million viewers (up 13 percent year-over-year) and – at the time – ranked as the second most-watched sports event outside the NFL in the past year, the most-watched non-championship game of the 12‑team CFP era, and larger than 18 of the previous 22 CFP Semifinal audiences. The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic posted 19.0 million viewers (up 37 percent year-over-year), peaking at 21.6 million. The Allstate Sugar Bowl averaged 18.7 million viewers (up 18 percent year-over-year), peaking at 21.4 million. The Capital One Orange Bowl averaged 15.9 million viewers. Quarterfinal performances helped propel ESPN to its third most-watched day ever on January 1, 2026, with the network averaging 9.4 million viewers in the average minute (trailing only New Year’s Day 2015 and 2018).

Playoff First Round
The CFP First Round Presented by Allstate featured strong multi-network performance on ESPN networks and TNT Sports, with the two games on ESPN and ABC averaging 14.9 million viewers, up 6 percent year-over-year – representing the two most-watched games in the two-year history of this round and, at the time, the fifth- and sixth-most-watched college football games of the 2025-26 season.

College GameDay Built by The Home Depot
College GameDay Built by The Home Depot drove additional momentum, scoring 2.6 million viewers leading into Monday night’s matchup, up 45 percent year-over-year and the sixth best postseason episode ever. CGD at the Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl drew 2.9 million viewers, the third most-watched postseason College GameDay on record. The show averaged 2.4 million viewers across both First Round telecasts, led by 2.6 million viewers on Friday night at Oklahoma (up 87 percent year-over-year with two fewer hours) and 2.2 million viewers on Saturday morning at Texas A&M (up 6 percent year-over-year).

Countdown to the CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T
ESPN’s digital programming had a banner night in Miami. Countdown to the CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T registered more than 10 million YouTube views Monday night, an all-time high. The show, hosted by Christine Williamson, Harry Douglas and Harry Lyles Jr., was live from the sidelines ahead of the title game, preparing fans with huge guests, breakdowns, predictions and much more taking ESPN YouTube viewers right up to the kickoff.

2025-26 College Football Playoff: Game-by-Game Viewership 

Game Viewers (P2+) CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T: Miami vs. Indiana 30.1 million Playoff Quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential: Alabama vs. Indiana 23.9 million Playoff Quarterfinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: Miami vs. Ohio State 19.0 million Playoff Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Georgia 18.7 million Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Oregon vs. Indiana 18.0 million Playoff Quarterfinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl: Oregon vs. Texas Tech 15.9 million Playoff Semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl: Miami vs. Ole Miss 15.8 million Playoff First Round Presented by Allstate: Alabama at Oklahoma 14.9 million Playoff First Round Presented by Allstate: Miami at Texas A&M 14.8 million Playoff First Round Presented by Allstate: Tulane at Ole Miss* 6.2 million Playoff First Round Presented by Allstate: James Madison at Oregon* 4.4 million

NBA Berlin/London Games on Prime Success

The NBA’s return to Europe for The NBA Berlin Game 2026 presented by Tissot on Jan. 15 and The NBA London Game 2026 presented by Tissot on Jan. 18, which featured regular-season games between the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies, delivered standout viewership for Prime Video in the region. The Magic’s comeback victory in Berlin was the most-watched regular-season game on record in Germany, also measuring as the most-watched NBA game in Europe this season. Some of Germany’s biggest stars joined Prime Video’s historic German-language broadcast from courtside, including UCL on Prime pundit Mats Hummels, the Bundesliga’s record title-holder Thomas Müller, former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp and German NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki, who is a regular analyst for the NBA on Prime’s English-language broadcast, which also delivered live coverage from inside the arena.

In the United Kingdom, the Berlin and London Games became the most-watched NBA Global Games ever in the country.  The NBA London Game 2026 was the most-watched London game ever in Europe, with viewership up 90% vs. the last NBA game in London in 2019.

These milestones underline a period of seismic viewership growth for the NBA on Prime, with audiences up significantly in Europe since the 11-year deal began in October 2025. As of January 2^nd, 2026, the average viewership of the NBA on Prime in Europe this season is almost three times higher (184%) year-on-year across a comparable number of games. In the same timeframe, average NBA viewership on Prime Video has grown by more than four times in the UK (312%) and three times in Germany (246%).

“These record audiences on Prime Video demonstrate an untapped demand for the NBA in Europe and we saw that passion once again for the 2026 NBA Global Games last week. Audiences are consistently tuning in and making the NBA on Prime a part of their weekly sports schedule, especially across our primetime weekend games,” says Alex Green, Managing Director of Prime Video Sport, International. “In Europe alone we are broadcasting in seven different languages with dedicated play-by-play and analyst voices so we’re delighted to see this response by fans. We’ll keep innovating with this local approach and focus on serving NBA fans new and old across the next 11 years.”

Prime Video’s regular-season coverage in Europe continues this weekend with a doubleheader of Houston Rockets vs. Detroit Pistons and an NBA Finals rematch between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, January 24, followed by a prime-time matchup of Denver Nuggets vs. Memphis Grizzlies at 8:30 p.m. GMT on Sunday, January 25. In addition to Play-Offs and Conference Finals coverage, Prime Video will also exclusively broadcast the NBA Finals 2026 in Europe, tipping off with Game 1 in the early hours of June 4.

Florida Panthers & Scripps Sports Experience Continued Growth in Year 2 of Partnership, TV Viewership Up Another 51% 

The Florida Panthers and Scripps Sports announced today that Panthers game viewership through 48 games of the 2025-26 regular season is up over 51% compared to last season which experienced instant growth on the new over-the-air and cable Scripps stations.

December 2025 ended as the highest game average audience of the 2025-26 season in both Miami/Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach DMA’s and marked the most watched game of the season (Dec. 30). The NHL Winter Classic special one hour pre-game show on Jan. 2 on WSFL-TV delivered one of the best pre-game audiences of the 2025-26 season.

NHL on ESPN Battle of Pennsylvania Delivered Double-Digit Increases 

The 2025-26 NHL season on ESPN continued last Thursday with the Battle of Pennsylvania matchup. The Philadelphia Flyers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins game delivered 690K viewers (peak: 841K), +69% vs. last season’s NHL on ESPN average.

Through 14 games, the NHL on ESPN is averaging 555K viewers, +36% YoY. Through 16 games, the NHL on ESPN and ABC is averaging 645K viewers, +29% YoY.

Big Ten Network Has Best Start on Record

Big Ten Network is off to its best start on record after a strong summer/fall (July-December), according to SBJ. Viewership was up 13% year-over-year for the conference network. Football overall was up 1% this season for BTN, and there were 10 Big Ten games on the network that drew over 1 million viewers.

Streaming Shatters Multiple Records in December 2025 with 47.5% of TV Viewing, according to The Gauge

Streaming viewership captured 47.5% of television in December 2025, eclipsing its previous record set in July 2025 to achieve the largest share of TV ever reported in Nielsen’s The Gauge™, the media industry’s leading snapshot of total TV and streaming consumption. Streaming dominance in December was anchored by a historic Christmas Day in which streaming usage surged to 55.1 billion viewing minutes, shattering the previous single-day streaming record by 8% (12/25/2024, 51.2 billion minutes), and marking just the second time in TV history where daily streaming volume exceeded 50 billion minutes.

The huge day of streaming viewership was driven by back-to-back NFL games on Netflix, strategically followed by the highly anticipated release of new Stranger Things episodes, in addition to Prime Video’s late NFL game. Combined, Netflix and Prime Video commanded 22.5% of total TV usage across the day. Meanwhile, streaming levels overall on Christmas Day swelled to an unprecedented 54% of daily TV usage, the largest single-day share of TV ever recorded by the category. Streaming’s dominance in December was further evidenced by the fact that the category exceeded 50% of daily TV usage twice, having occurred for the first time ever on Saturday, December 13 when streaming represented 50.4% of TV.

Overall streaming usage was up 3% in December versus November, doubling the monthly increase of total TV usage. Four streaming platforms achieved personal bests this month, including:

• Netflix, 9.0% of TV: Netflix viewership was up 10% month-over-month, with increases largely driven by Stranger Things, which generated over 15 billion viewing minutes and was December’s most-watched streaming title.

• Prime Video, 4.3% of TV: Prime Video surged 12% versus last month and exceeded its previous platform record by 0.3 share points. Prime Video’s increases were driven by four NFL Thursday Night Football games, including a record-setting Christmas Day game, as well as new episodes of its original series Fallout.

• The Roku Channel, 3.0% of TV: The free ad-supported streamer added 0.1 share point from November to secure an all-time monthly high.

• Paramount Streaming, 2.5% of TV: Led by the 6.2 billion viewing minutes generated by its original series Landman on Paramount+ (December’s No. 2 most-watched streaming title), Paramount Streaming was up 10% versus November to hit a collective 2.5% share of TV (Paramount+ and Pluto).

Across traditional TV, broadcast viewership represented 21.4% of total TV watch-time in December, while cable accounted for 20.2%. CBS and FOX secured the top broadcast programs in December, led by FOX’s Eagles vs. Bills NFL matchup on December 28, followed by the Steelers vs. Lions on CBS on December 21. CBS also owned the top non-sports programs of the month with Tracker and 60 Minutes, each capturing over 10 million viewers (L+7) and the largest non-sports program audiences.

Cable sports programming experienced a 16% viewing lift in December to represent 9% of total cable viewing. NFL games represented the top five cable telecasts this month, led by all four of the December interval’s Monday Night Football games on ESPN, followed by the NFL Network’s coverage of the Texans vs. Chargers matchup on December 27.

The December 2025 interval spanned five weeks, from 12/01/2025 through 12/28/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar, with weekly intervals beginning on Monday.

Nielsen’s Top 25 Live Sports Events Telecasts (Jan 12 – Jan 18)

• NFL playoff games secured the top 5 slots across 4 different networks/distributors – NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2, all delivering 29+ million viewers.

• • NBC’s coverage of the Rams vs Bears Divisional Playoff Game on Sunday, January 18 was the most-watched game of the week with 40.07 million viewers.

• • CBS’s coverage of the Bills vs. Broncos Divisional Playoff Game on Saturday, January 17 delivered 39.6 million viewers.

• • ABC/ESPN’s coverage of Patriots vs Texans Divisional Playoff Game on Sunday, January 18 drew 37.9 million viewers.

• • FOX’s coverage of the 49ers vs. Seahawks Divisional Playoff Game on Saturday, January 17 drew 31.94 million viewers.

• • ABC/ESPN/ESPN2’s coverage of Chargers vs. Patriots Wildcard Game on Monday, January 12 drew 29.1 million viewers

• The NBA secured 7 spots in the Top 25:

  • #6 – Spurs vs. Thunder (NBC)

  • #7 – Timberwolves vs. Rockets (ESPN)

  • #12 – Knicks vs. Warriors (Amazon Prime Video)

  • #13 – Cavaliers vs 76ers (ESPN) – 1/16

  • #15 – Cavaliers vs 76ers (ESPN) – 1/14

  • #16 – Nuggets vs. Mavericks (ESPN)

  • #19 – Thunder vs Rockets (Amazon Prime Video)

• Men’s College Basketball netted 9 of the Top 25 spots:

• • #8 – Kentucky vs Tennessee (ESPN)

  • #9 – Florida vs Vanderbilt (ESPN)

  • #10 – Baylor vs Kansas (FOX)

  • #11 – UCLA vs Ohio State (CBS)

• • #14 – Iowa vs. Indiana (FOX)

  • #17 – Iowa State vs Kansas (ESPN)

  • #18 – Uconn vs Georgetown (FOX)

  • #21 – Arizona St vs. Houston (ESPN)

  • #25 – Michigan vs. Oregon (NBC)

• NBC’s Premier League coverage of Arsenal vs. Nottingham placed #20 in the weekly ranker.

• CBS’s PBR telecast secured the #22 slot

• TGL Golf on ESPN placed #23

• The PPL Masters (Pickleball) on CBS placed #24