• by Wayne Friedman , May 24, 2017

NBC and CBS are claiming victory for the 2016-2017 TV season, even as overall TV broadcast and cable networks are generally trending down in viewership versus a year ago.

NBC will finish first in 18-49 viewers, for the third time in four years, ending the season with a 2.1 Nielsen live program/same-day time-shifted rating -- flat versus the year before.

NBC also can claim a rarity in this regard: A network winning in 18-49 for the first time in five years without airing either a Super Bowl or an Olympics.

Still, NBC had the top two 18-49 viewing-rated series -- both sports programming series -- the NFL’s “Sunday Night Football” and the late-season 5 game portion of the “Thursday Night Football” series. (CBS airs the first 5 games of the “THF” season.)

Fox was also flat at 1.9 18-49 Nielsen rating -- it had the Super Bowl this past season. CBS was down 22% to a 1.8 rating; ABC, off 11% to a 1.6; and CW, slipping 12% to 0.7.

CBS finished first in total viewers the 14th time in 15 years -- at 9.6 million, down 12%. NBC was flat at 8.1 million; ABC, fell 9% to 6.2 million; Fox, gained 1% to 5.8 million; and CW, down 9% to 1.8 million.

Industry estimates are broadcast TV ratings are generally down 10% with cable networks, slipping 7% for the current 2016-2017 season.