Paramount chair of TV media George Cheeks is gracious in defeat. CBS won’t end the year as the most-watched broadcast network, but he notes there’s a good reason for that: NBC’s “Legendary February.”
“In full transparency, while this year is undeniably strong for CBS… CBS is not going to be number one in total viewers,” Cheeks told reporters on Wednesday as CBS unveiled its fall schedule. “‘Legendary February,’ and NBC, will be the reason for that. With more than 120 hours of Olympics and NFL, including the Super Bowl, primetime sports for this season on NBC is up 82% year over year.
“Congrats to my former colleagues at NBC,” added Cheeks, whose tenure at NBCUniversal including a stint as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. (“Legendary February” was the marketing shorthand NBC used that month to tout the fact that it aired the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game all in the same month.)
According to Nielsen data through 4/12/26 and all prime programs, NBC is leading total viewers with 6.1 million, followed by CBS (4.5 million), ABC (4.4 million) and Fox (3.7 million).
Cheeks said CBS had won the total viewers crown every year since the 2007-2008 TV season; Variety‘s annual network rankers are a bit different, as they include live+7 ratings — and therefore show NBC winning by a hair in at least 2023, 2022 and 2018. But CBS is consistently on top, winning the 2024-2025 TV season with 4.443 million viewers, compared to NBC with 4.243 million. In 2023-2024, CBS led with 5.055 million vs. NBC’s 4.990 million.
CBS’ primetime tallies are impressive given that it doesn’t have a regular primetime NFL presence except in the years that it airs the Super Bowl or NFL playoff games that stretch into prime; NBC has the weekly “Monday Night Football” to pump its ratings.
Cheeks and CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach continue to tout the strength of the Eye’s entertainment fare, including newbie “Marshals,” which is on track as TV’s most-watched new series of the year, broadcast or streaming, according to live+28 multiplatform ratings released Wednesday by the network.
CBS also noted that “Sheriff Country,” “Boston Blue” and “CIA” follow as the top four new primetime series in broadcast, while “Tracker,” “Marshals” and “60 Minutes” are overall tops in broadcast prime. In comedy, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” and “Ghosts” are the season’s most-watched series.
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