Sports continues to dominate TV viewership in 2022 and it’s the NFL driving engagement again. NFL games so far this season are already among the most-viewed programs of the year, as six games are in the top 25 most-viewed shows, 15 in the top 50 and 17 in the top 75. Only one NFL linear TV window is outside the top 75 thus far: Titans-Bills in Week 2 (7.92 million), which was on ESPN/ESPN2 but was part of a network overlap experiment, which saw head-to-head competition with Vikings-Eagles on ABC.
The start to the NFL season means there are only four non-NFL telecasts still in the top 25 for 2022: the State of the Union address, the first day of the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 13 (which piggybacked off the Super Bowl), and the CFP Championship.
The onslaught of NFL games coming in the fourth quarter likely means that a record-low number of Olympic telecasts will crack the top 100 during a year in which a Summer or Winter Games was held. Only two nights from Beijing sit in the top 50, and nine in the top 75. Last year, 11 nights from the Tokyo Olympics made the final top 100, and in 2018, 12 nights from the Pyeongchang Olympics made the list.
An outlier this year continues to be the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, which have aired across a number of networks. Five of the eight hearings to date are in the top 75 telecasts. The Academy Awards looks like it will make a return to the top telecasts this year, currently sitting at No. 40. Even with an avalanche of NFL games coming, the position at the end of the third quarter makes it likely the Oscars will crack the top 100 after no major awards shows made the list for the first time in 2021.
The first three weeks of the NFL bumped five other nights from Beijing out of the top 50, as well as two NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games and two NBA Finals games.
Alabama-Texas (Fox) and Notre Dame-Ohio State (ABC) have been the two most-watched college football games this season to date, and those two matchups sit just inside the top 75 for now. But more NFL games in the fourth quarter likely will push them out. Also outside the top 75 now are the final round of the Masters and the first round of the NFL Draft.
