Despite Strikes, Viewership is Up for TV’s Top Shows Like NCIS
By Movieguide® Contributor
After months-long strikes last year put the entertainment industry on pause, viewership for TV’s top shows is back on the rise.
“Viewer totals for a host of shows are on par with or better than their 2022-23 averages. A couple of newcomers have put up strong showings, and an unscripted stalwart is growing, too,” said The Hollywood Reporter.
Now, in its twenty-first season, CBS’ NCIS has increased its total viewership. It’s up 5% and averages 10.32 million viewers.
The NCIS universe has been busy, as Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo returned for “The Stories We Leave Behind” episode to honor late co-star David McCallum.
The actor will also star in a spinoff series centered around DiNozzo and love interest Ziva David.
“We’ve been talking about this story for many years, and now, with John McNamara at the helm, we are ready,” Weatherly and Cote de Pablo said in a joint statement about the show. “The world of Tony and Ziva (and daughter Tali) promises to be an action-packed roller coaster fueled by love, danger, tears and laughter.”
YOUNG SHELDON, another show that found success despite the strikes, has garnered 9.48 million views, marking a 2% increase since 2022-2023. Now in its final season, YOUNG SHELDON “will likely go out as the most watched comedy on television, as it has been for each of the last four seasons,” per THR.
It wasn’t totally unaffected by the strikes, though. “The season will be shorter than those before it due to the truncated nature of the 2023-2024 scripted broadcast season caused by the writer and actors’ strikes that shut down Hollywood productions for nearly six months,” Variety stated.
In the first season, TRACKER has averaged 10.59 million viewers and “is on pace to be the most watched series (excluding live sports) on a broadcast network this season,” said THR.
NBC’s CHICAGO MED has stayed even with its views from 2022-2023, averaging 8.45 million. The show is one of NBC’s most-watched series of the week.
With over 20 years running, LAW & ORDER: SVU has yet to take a hit on its viewership. The show still averages 7.28 million viewers and is up 6% since the 2022-2023 season.
THE BACHELOR is up 9%. With 4.11 million viewers, the show will most likely make another jump towards the end of the season as more fans tune in for the final episodes.
Gordon Ramsey’s NEXT LEVEL CHEF cook-off competition garners its views from the drama rather than the cooking. However, in its third season, the show increased its views by 8%, averaging 3.97 million.
ABC’s ABBOTT ELEMENTARY garnered 3.78 million viewers. This is down 4% from 2022-2023, but “the audience hasn’t gone away so much as switched to platforms outside the reach of Nielsen’s linear ratings,” THR reported.
THE FLOOR is in its first season, and the Rob-Lowe-hosted game show has skyrocketed FOX’s viewership, with a total of 3.47 million views in just its first running.
Movieguide® previously reported on more exciting updates for NCIS fans:
NCIS: ORIGINS has revealed who will play the young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the NCIS spinoff.
Austin Stowell will star in the upcoming prequel. He is known for his role in Peacock’s A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, PUBLIC MORALS and the upcoming show THREE WOMEN.
Stowell also appeared in the movies WHIPLASH, BATTLE OF THE SEXES, DOLPHIN TALE and DOLPHIN TALE 2, and Hulu’s series CATCH 22.
“Narrated by Harmon, the new series begins in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS, and chronicles Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ younger years,” Deadline shared. “In the series, Gibbs (Stowell) starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks.”
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