• by Wayne Friedman , June 8, 2023

The top ten prime-time entertainment (non-sports) shows among the five English-speaking broadcast TV networks were down 5% in the just-completed TV season, averaging 9.05 million Nielsen-measured viewers, according to live program viewing through seven days of time-shifted viewing (L7).

This compares to overall prime-time viewing -- for all shows -- dipping 9% compared to the 2021-22 TV season.

No entertainment prime-time show topped 10 million viewers this year.

CBS's “NCIS” remained the leader -- at 9.86 million (10.9 million a year ago); CBS' “FBI” was next -- at 9.52 million, followed by (10.29 million) CBS' “Blue Bloods,” 9.40 million (9.78 million), CBS “Young Sheldon,” 9.32 million (9.2 million).

Next was NBC’s “Chicago Fire” at 9.25 million (9.84 million), followed by CBS' "Ghosts" at 9.09 million (8.41 million) and CBS' "60 Minutes" at 8.83 million (9.19 million).

Completing the top ten are NBC’s "Chicago Med" at 8.46 million (9.11 million), CBS' "The Equalizer" with 8.38 million (9.42), and CBS’s first-year show "Fire Country," 8.36 million.

Only two shows in the top ten -- "Ghosts" and "Young Sheldon" -- improved compared to a year ago.

The best-performing show for ABC was “American Idol” at 6.94 million. Fox's best came with "911: Lone Star" with 5.71 million. For the CW, it was "Walker" at 1.23 million.

NBC's "Sunday Night Football" was the best overall prime-time show at 17.99 million viewers -- down 1% from 18.14 million a year ago.

Looking at all 2,110 prime-time episodes -- entertainment and sports -- the average prime-time episode was down 3% to a Nielsen-measured 4.703 million viewers (from 4.841 million a year ago).

The average TV series gained 34% (873,000 viewers) through seven days of time-shifted viewing from their original live airing.