TV Network Ratings Winners & Losers

What a difference a Super Bowl makes. Last year, Fox was down double digits in Variety‘s year-end ranker of the year’s most-watched networks in primetime. But in 2025, Fox had the Big Game: And a a result, the network was up double digits in both total viewers and adults 18-49 (where it was No. 1).

But don’t count out the strength of regular programming, as CBS — even sans Super Bowl, which it broadcast in 2024 — managed to stay No. 1 in total viewers thanks to series like “Tracker” and “60 Minutes.” ABC, meanwhile, was up 5%, after being virtually flat in 2024 — meaning for two years in a row, the Alphabet net has managed to keep the viewership erosion at bay. In an age where primetime numbers are naturally going down as audiences flock to streaming, that’s nearly a miracle. (Well, and ABC has been helped by airing more NFL Monday Night Football games the past two years.)

This reps the first year that Nielsen’s big data + panel ratings were implemented, which now mix both Nielsen panel data from viewers along with set-top box and smart TV datasets. That has caused some grumbling in the industry, given some missing data and inaccuracies that have been found. It also makes year-to-year comparisons that might be a bit apples and oranges. Most noticable in this year’s charts are a stabilization in the primetime ratings for kids’ networks Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. After years of annual double-digit declines, Disney was down slightly in 2025, and Nick was actually up (both saw gains in 18-49). No one believes that kids have suddenly started watching linear again — but no one can really explain the change there, other than perhaps a quirk in this year’s methodology.

Tomorrow, Variety will share the ranker of this year’s most-watched primetime telecasts. But here, we recount which networks were up and down in 2025.

WINNERS

Fox Corp.: Fox famously downsized after selling its studio operations and most of its networks to Disney — but the channels it held on to did quite well in 2025. Fox was up 10% in both total viewers and adults 18-49 (where it was No. 1), thanks to the power of the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Fox News defied the post-election downward trend seen by MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and CNN.

The CW: Speaking of controversial companies that had reason to cheer, Nexstar saw its The CW network climb 13% in total viewers, while Newsnation grew 16% — albeit, from low numbers. But a shift toward more live sports is clearly having an impact on The CW, which also saw its adults 18-49 rating climb a hair.

ESPN: Sports! ESPN’s still got it, and this year climbed 18% — the most of any network in the top 30 among total viewers. The other big story is ESPN in adults 18-49, where this year it’s one of the Big 4 — jumping 10% to rank as the No. 4 network in primetime, beating out CBS.

TruTV: Ooh la la! The French Open clearly had an impact on Tru TV, a channel that has gone through many lives (starting as Court TV, then later as a reality-focused channel, then the comedy-focused home of “Impractical Jokers”). This year, which this year shed most of its remaining comedy product (“Impractical Jokers” is now on TBS) to focus even more as a secondary home for TNT Sports fare. That paid off when it came to the French Open, which included wall-to-wall replays and coverage on Tru TV. Ratings for the full tournament were up 25% this year on TNT and TruTV, and that probably explains why TruTV bucked the trend of cablers (including its other Warner Bros. Discovery siblings), jumping 46% in viewers and 27% in 18-49. (Again, those percentages are huge because TruTV was coming in at a much smaller audience.)

LOSERS

Families: Channels with “Family” in their titles did not fare well in 2025. Family Entertainment TV, down 29%. Great American Family, down 18%. Hallmark Family, down 14%. Discovery Family Channel, down 22%. To be fair, it’s tough out there for virtually all linear cable networks. If families are still watching TV together, it’s not on these “family” channels.

Dr. Phil: One-time talk powerhouse Dr. Phil McGraw launched his Merit Street TV network (now just “Merit TV”) in 2024 and got on the board with a paltry average of 27,000 viewers. Just a year later, Merit Street Media filed for bankruptcy and sued its joint venture partners at the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The channel still exists as a shell of its ambition, and in 2025 dropped the most of any network on our ranker: down 41%, to an average of just 16,000 viewers in primetime.

Below are the primetime rankers for broadcast, cable and premium cable networks in 2025, among total viewers (as well as the top 50 list in adults 18-49). Most Nielsen-rated networks can be found here, with the exception of a few channels that are not ad-supported.

[For historical record, here are previous year-end network rankers: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.]

THE MOST-WATCHED NETWORKS OF 2025 (BY TOTAL VIEWERS)

THE 50 TOP-RATED NETWORKS OF 2025 (BY ADULTS 18-49)