Dun-Dun! ‘SVU’ Was TV’s Most-Watched Live, Linear Program Last Week
Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for June 26 through July 2, 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).
It’s finally happened. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit takes the throne for viewership share after months of loitering in the top ten. The absence of major sports and other TV tentpole events cleared the way for the syndicated stalwart, which ascends to first place with 1.05% of all minutes watched last week, fueled by rerun marathons on USA and ION. Now that being said, if you combine watch-time for both the Spanish and English language telecasts of the Copa de Oro de la Concacaf 2023 (Concacaf Gold Cup), which rank No. 4 and No. 63, respectively, the soccer championship wins overall with 1.09% viewership share.
Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:
Elsewhere in sports, MLB games place fifth and PGA Tour golf remains in seventh week-over-week.
Below Deck, which hasn’t aired on live TV since April, jumps into the ranking at No. 13 (0.53% of watch-time), thanks to multiple marathons on Bravo that ran June 29 through July 2.
Speaking of marathons, Yellowstone also pops into the ranking, with its 0.49% viewership share driven by a weekend binge-fest on Paramount Network.
Additional week-over-week ranking newcomers include NASCAR Cup Series (No. 20) and America’s Got Talent (No. 24).
On the network side of things, CBS remains in first place, increasing its watch-time from 6.42% to 6.49% week-over-week. NBC takes second place and is just a bit ahead of ABC with a 6.13% vs. 6.12% viewership share, respectively. Today, America’s Got Talent and NASCAR Cup Series were three of the programs driving NBC’s watch-time during the week.
Additional insights around the most-watched networks from June 26-July 2:
Hallmark Channel moves into No. 9 from No. 12 previously, with its 1.87% viewership share fueled in part by reruns of The Golden Girls and Reba.
For the first time this year, BET makes the network ranking, arriving at No. 25 with 1.04% of minutes watched. Celebrity Family Feud accounted for nearly a quarter of the network’s watch-time during the week, with Tyler Perry’s House of Payne the second program by minutes watched on BET.
Additional week-over-week ranking newcomers include Bravo (No. 20), History (No. 22) and FX (No. 23).
