Javonte Williams (33) of the Dallas Cowboys carries the ball against the Green Bay Packers during a 'Sunday Night Football' game on Sept. 28, 2025. Sam Hodde/Getty Images Logo text The addition of streaming to existing on-air TV ratings means there are more ways to parse the numbers. Already in recent weeks, lists of the season’s best-performing shows over 28 days and 35 days, covering most — but not all — of the 2025-26 season have been released.
Now comes the first set of numbers covering the entirety of the Nielsen-designated season (Sept. 14, 2025-May 20, 2026). They include seven days of multi-platform ratings; another set of 35-day numbers will likely come in another few weeks, also covering the full season.
What all these multi-platform numbers (which come from Nielsen via the PR shops of their network and streamer clients) have in common is that they focus on entertainment programming. Live sports and news programs are usually left out. But The Hollywood Reporter decided to add them in.
Below are the top 30 shows with seven days of multi-platform viewing, were that data was available. Even without full streaming data, however, four primetime sports and news programs made the rankings. In those cases, they’re ranked by linear audiences only or, for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, the combination of its Nielsen linear average and streaming data from Adobe Analytics.
A few takeaways:
• Over seven days, nothing on TV was bigger than Sunday Night Football‘s 23.5 million viewers this season. Even Netflix’s Stranger Things (22.38 million) didn’t quite match it, though it continued to grow considerably over several more weeks, hitting 32.9 million viewers after 35 days.
• All but five of the top 30 shows over seven days begin their lives on broadcast networks. That balance shifts some the farther out Nielsen measures — after 28 and 35 days, about half of the top shows are exclusive to streaming services (not including sports).
• The biggest disparity between the seven- and 35-day ratings belongs to Netflix’s His & Hers. The limiited series had a solid 9.56 million viewers after seven days, but it grew more in the subsequent four weeks than any other show. By 35 days after its premiere, it had more than doubled to 24.2 million viewers.
• In the adults 18-49 demographic, Sunday Night Football and ABC and ESPN’s Monday Night Football ranked first and second, far above everything else (demographic data for streaming-only shows wasn’t available). ABC shows had five of next seven spots, led by High Potential with a 2.27 rating (equivalent to about 3.1 million viewers ages 18-49).
The top 30 shows across all platforms are below, followed by the 22 highest-rated network series among adults 18-49.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
