• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 30, 2025

Any confusion concerning who has the top individual TV shows -- linear, streaming, or otherwise -- should be clear when Nielsen -- or others -- release show-by-show traditional average viewer comparisons.

But is there something missing?

Looking at a broader looking list of shows for the 2024-2025 TV season, shows Netflix with five of the top ten shows. This is based on 35-day cross platform TV and streaming viewing.

“Squid Game” was the top show -- averaging 27.1 million viewers, according to a Nielsen chart.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” -- the perennial winner over the past decade for broadcast/cable TV shows -- was next at 21.6 million. Third place was another Netflix show “Adolescence”.

Looking under the hood, there is a mixed picture concerning broadcast-originated original shows that have a significant mix of streaming viewing, live or delayed viewing.

For example, 13% of “Sunday Night Football” viewership came from streaming; 32% of CBS’s “Tracker”’s 19.0 million (fourth place); 49% of ABC’s “High Potential” (6th place, 16.1 million); and 34% for CBS’s “Matlock” (7th place, 16.0 million).

What also probably should be factored into this list, is what part of the “Squid Game” viewing comes with advertising and viewing with no-advertising? Same for say Prime Video’ “Reacher” -- in fact, all shows starting on broadcast or streaming.

That’s the rub for advertising going forward. For a long time now, brands have been way less focused on program-driven media plans than audience-driven plans. Big time sports programming may be the exception.

Screen Wars Media notes that “audiences are not transitioning to streaming at the same rate for all shows.”

In particular, “SNL”, procedures shows (CBS’s “NCIS: Sydney”, NBC’s “Chicago Med”), and unscripted shows (NBC’s “The Voice”) only get around 13% to 18% of their viewing from streaming platforms.

On the flip side, HBO shows’ “The Penguin” and “The White Lotus”, as well as networks comedies -- ABC’s “Abbott Elementary”, NBC’s “St. Denis Medical” -- get way more, anywhere from 43% to 92%.