After Toppling CBS for Ratings Crown, NBC Faces Renewal Dilemma

At CBS’ 2026-27 slate unveiling last week, Paramount TV Media Chair George Cheeks congratulated his former colleagues at NBC for winning this broadcast season — conceding CBS’ No. 1 spot for the first time since 2007-08 thanks to NBC’s Legendary February, which saw the network air the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game.

With the juggernaut events, NBC averaged 6.38 million viewers, according to live-plus-seven-day Nielsen figures through March 29, triumphing over CBS with 4.50 million viewers — which was notably also outpaced by ABC with 4.54 million viewers at this point in the season. In fourth place, Fox averaged 3.9 million viewers. Legendary February also drove NBC to an impressive 1.13 rating among adults 18-49, outpacing ABC’s 0.61 rating, Fox’s 0.75 and CBS’ 0.46. 

NBC’s broadcast season win comes after the network trailed just behind CBS for the past two seasons, with the 2024-25 averaging 5.51 million viewers at a comparable point in the season, as compared to CBS’ 5.67 million viewers. The same standing remained for the 2023-24 season, with NBC averaging 5.47 million viewers while CBS averaged 5.63 million viewers by the end of March. This data notably doesn’t account for streaming viewership, which networks have started leveraging to make up for overall linear viewership declines.

The ratings win was a result of a rare confluence of big sporting events, so NBC won’t enjoy the same kind of lift next year, when ABC gets the Super Bowl and the next Olympics is still another year away. That puts more pressure on NBC as it looks to its 2026-27 slate and must make several renewal decisions ahead of upfronts in May. NBC must choose whether to keep lineup or take a bet on new projects as it seeks to retain the linear ratings crown.

NBC already renewed the “One Chicago” franchise as well as “Law & Order: SVU” and comedies “Happy’s Place” and “St. Denis Medical” — leaving “Law & Order,” “The Hunting Party,” “Brilliant Minds,” “Stumble” and “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” on the bubble, fending for spots in the schedule alongside five drama pilots and three comedy pilots in consideration.

If there’s one sure-fire bet at NBC, it’s the “One Chicago” franchise, which represented the top three most-watched shows on its scripted slate this season: “Chicago Fire” stands as the No. 1 show with 7.27 million viewers, while “Chicago Med” and “Chicago PD” following with 7.18 million viewers and 6.53 million viewers, respectively.

The “Law & Order” franchise sits just behind “One Chicago,” with renewed “SVU” scoring an average 5.4 million views, while on-the-bubble “Law & Order” averaged 4.84 million viewers, making it the most-watched of the shows awaiting decisions, ahead of “The Hunting Party” with 3.96 million viewers. “Brilliant Minds” was the season’s least-watched drama series with 3.14 million viewers, though it still brought in a bigger audience than freshman comedies “Stumble” and “Reggie Dinkins.”

“Law & Order,” “The Hunting Party” and “Brilliant Minds” will contend with five drama pilots under consideration at NBC, which include a “Rockford Files” reboot starring David Boreanaz, which has had good buzz thus far, and four other crime procedurals, all of which will be screened to NBC executives next week, according to an individual with knowledge of the pilots.

On the comedy front, renewed “Happy’s Place” and “St. Denis Medical” were the most-watched titles this season, with “Happy’s Place” averaging 3.95 million viewers and “St. Denis Medical” scoring 3.18 million viewers. “Stumble” and “Reggie Dinkins” were the overall least-watched scripted series on NBC this season, with “Reggie Dinkins” scoring 3 million average viewers while “Stumble” averaged 2.36 million viewers. Notably, demo viewership for “Reggie Dinkins” was the second-highest of the scripted slate, coming behind only “Chicago Fire.”

There’s less competition for comedies with only three pilots in the works, including a multi-cam romantic comedy starring Téa Leoni, a buddy comedy with Katey Sagal and Jane Lynch and a PI comedy from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” writer Dan Goor, which has also generated positive buzz.

With basketball still taking over the entirety of NBC’s Tuesday primetime slots — which led to an even bigger slew of cancellations last year — and Sunday also making room for football, NBC doesn’t have too much space for the eight pilots that have been ordered. It’s possible, however, that promising pilots could end up finding a home on Peacock, rather than using the streamer to rescue an existing show from cancellation — like for “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” which was officially cut last week, a year after its Season 5 run on Peacock.

All will be revealed ahead of NBC’s upfronts on May 11.

“Malcolm in the Middle” revival soars

“Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” debuted as Disney+ and Hulu’s No. 1 season premiere this year with 8.1 million views globally after three days of streaming. The premiere, which drove nearly 18 million hours of lift to the original series globally and a 107% increase in the past week, also marked the No. 2. biggest season premiere on Disney+ in Latin America ever, behind “Loki” Season 1, with 3.6 million views after three days in the region.

“Grey’s Anatomy” streaming milestone

The beloved medical drama made its 320th appearance on Nielsen’s acquired streaming chart last week, marking the longest streak of any show to date since the chart kicked off in 2020 (“NCIS” follows with 299 appearances). Likewise,
“Grey’s” also had 192 appearances on the overall top 10 streaming chart, the second most of any show, behind “NCIS,” and has generated the second-highest yearly viewing totals in each of the past two years, behind family-friend juggernaut “Bluey.”

During the week of March 16, “Grey’s Anatomy” scored 918 million minutes viewed on Hulu and Netflix, coming in as the No. 7 most-watched overall streaming show for the week.

NCAA Gymnastics hits high

The 2026 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship scored the most-watched gymnastics meet ever on ESPN networks with viewership peaking at 1.7 million viewers. The semifinals and championship stood as their most-watched on record with 463,000 average viewers while the final was up 10% year-over-year and up 9% from its previous best viewership in 2023.

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• Adam McKay and Kevin Messick’s “Thrash” remained atop Netflix’s top 10 movie list for the second week in a row with 34.5 million views
• “The Pitt” closed out its second season with a ratings bang, with the Season 2 finale scoring the biggest audience the series has ever seen with 9.7 million viewers in three days
• The “Euphoria” Season 3 premiere scored 8.5 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max in its first three days, outperforming the previous season premiere by 44%
• The 2026 NBA season brought in the biggest regular season audience the league has seen in 24 years

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