‘Law & Order: SVU’ Leads for TV Watch-Time, While NFL Preseason Enters the Field 

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for July 31 through August 6, 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).

Fall may seem like a long way off during these dog days of summer, but football fans are already raring to go with the new season: The NFL 2023 Hall of Fame game between the Jets and the Browns scored enough watch-time to land it in the top ten programs, taking sixth place with 0.64% of all minutes watched on TV last week. Not too shabby for a single game — and reiterates just how foundational football is for attracting audiences to linear TV. The NFL preseason gets going in earnest this week and college games are just around the corner, so don’t be surprised to see football all over the program ranking in the foreseeable future. 

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit increased its viewership share from 1.12% to 1.19% week-over-week, placing it at the top of the ranking above Major League Baseball (1.03%), which slips to second from first previously. 

  • Fueled by rerun marathons on HGTV, House Hunters blasts up the chart, moving from No. 29 to No. 9 week-over-week, capturing a 0.62% viewership share. 

  • America’s Got Talent squeaks into the ranking at No. 25, up from No. 33 previously, with a 0.40% viewership share. 

  • Additional week-over-week ranking newcomers include NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt (No. 23) and Everybody Loves Raymond (No. 24). 

Curious about which networks captured the most viewership last week? Head over to The Measure to see that ranking and get more insights. 

Eleanor Semeraro

Eleanor is an entertainment analyst and marketing strategist with a passion for all things TV and social media. She’s a regular TV[R]EV contributor and consults for small businesses within the advertising and entertainment data analytics ecosystem.

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