Telecasts in the third quarter surrounding the Olympics and a presidential election season made big inroads among the year’s 75 most-watched telecasts (English language).
The Paris Games had the most significant impact on the rankings, especially as NBC made a concerted effort to get audiences watching in the afternoon on the East Coast. Those “Paris prime-time” windows (2-5 p.m. ET), combined with the traditional U.S. prime-time windows during the Games, helped the Olympics put 20 telecasts among the top 75.
The NFL still remains in charge, with 36 of the top 75 — including 17 from the current season. The new crop of games this season continues to be led by the Ravens-Chiefs NFL Kickoff game at 29.2 million viewers. Prime Video even has one slot in the top 75 with its best “Thursday Night Football” audience yet (Cowboys-Giants, 16.2 million at No. 67 overall).
While the Super Bowl remains a clear No. 1, Kamala Harris’ debate against Donald Trump delivered just over 65 million viewers across a variety of networks, beating out the NFC and AFC championship games for No. 2 overall for the year to date. Among the top 10 telecasts, the only other non-NFL telecast was the Biden-Trump debate back in late June (50.2 million). Seven nights from across the Republican and Democratic national conventions in the third quarter also made the top 75.
