College Hoops May Be Done, But the NBA Is Just Getting Started
Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for April 10-16, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).
The absence of college basketball — a titan for viewership over the last month — leads to notable upward mobility for many titles in our program ranking. In fact, only three programs decrease chart positions week-over-week: MLB baseball, America Reports and Chicago Fire.
Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:
NBA basketball jumps to the top of the program ranking, with the play-in tournament and first two days of the playoffs capturing 3.99% of watch-time for the week.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Good Morning America round out the top three, both increasing their share of viewership and ranking positions week-over-week.
Ranking newcomer American Idol lands at No. 21 with 0.41% of minutes watched. It aired two episodes during the week (Monday and Sunday), the second of which was the first live voting show of the season.
Additional week-over-week ranking newcomers include ABC World News Tonight With David Muir (No. 18), The Golden Girls (No. 20), Two and a Half Men (No.22), SpongeBob SquarePants (No. 24) and NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt (No. 25).
With assists from NBA games and American Idol, ABC moves into first place on the network ranking with 7.29% of watch-time, up from 6.18% the previous week.
Additional insights around the most-watched networks from April 10-16:
With 2.44% of minutes watched, TNT rockets to No. 7 from No. 21 previously, driven primarily by NBA games.
Bravo has quietly been increasing its share of viewership in recent weeks, most recently capturing 0.99%, up from 0.90% the previous week and 0.85% the week before. Vanderpump Rules and episodes from the Below Deck franchise are two primary drivers.
Networks retaining their ranking positions but increasing watch-time week-over-week include Fox (up to 4.40% from 4.38% previously), ION (up to 2.18% from 2.08%), USA Network (up to 1.26% from 1.19%) and CW (up to 1.16% from 1.12%).
Game Show Network is the sole week-over-week ranking newcomer, landing at No. 24 with 0.93% of watch-time.
