This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of April 12-18, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.
Most-Watched Shows and Networks
Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. 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).
NBA basketball jumped to the top of the ranking, scoring 1.26% of all live, linear minutes watched during the week, followed by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1.00%) and Good Morning America (0.94%). MLB baseball made the top five (0.80%), while the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards took No. 20 with 0.42% of watch-time. Only two shows saw a ranking decrease week-over-week: SportsCenter, which dropped to No. 14 from No. 11, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, which took No. 25 after being at No. 20 the previous week.
ABC ousted long-time ranking leader CBS, capturing 6.77% of watch-time, compared to the latter’s 6.70%. Fox News, Fox, Hallmark, ION, TNT and TV Land all maintained their positions week-over-week, while MSNBC had the biggest change, up to No. 9 from No. 16 the previous week. Thanks in part to reruns of Rizzoli & Isles, Lifetime also moved up a few places, taking No. 21 with 1.16% of minutes watched. Bravo and A&E were two newcomers to the chart, landing at No. 23 and No. 25, respectively.
Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions
Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.
The only programming to surpass one billion TV ad impressions during the week was NBA basketball, with 1.2 billion. MLB baseball and PGA Tour Golf scored top marks, with MLB delivering 598.3 million TV ad impressions and PGA generating 464.1 million. American Idol rose from 10th to sixth place, with its 627.9 million TV ad impressions constituting a 5.66% increase from the previous week. The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards came in at No. 15 with 446.6 million TV ad impressions, while The Voice took No. 19 (406.3 million).
On the network side of things, once again, CBS claimed first place with 6.7 billion TV ad impressions, a little over one billion fewer than the previous week. Daytime programming delivered top impression-counts for the network, led by The Price Is Right (708 million impressions) and The Young and the Restless (645.7 million impressions), while the ACM awards delivered about 6.7% of CBS’ impressions for the week. Fox had an 85.75% week-over-week increase in impressions, up to 1.1 billion. NASCAR Cup Series delivered 230.6 million impressions for the network, while The Masked Singer generated 129.1 million. Headline News moved up the ranking slightly week-over-week, with coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial accounting for 57% of the network’s total impressions.
