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Most-watched shows in USA in 2020 – 21

CBS procedurals NCIS, The Equalizer and FBI are amongst the most watched scripted titles in the USA.

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US procedurals NCIS, The Equalizer and FBI are amongst the most watched scripted titles across the US 2020 – 21 Fall season. All three are CBS titles.

Variety has posted a list of top shows but notes, “If these don’t look like great numbers, well, it’s 2021. There’s no such thing as great numbers anymore.”

It tallied the number from Live+7 days of viewing, and while 18 – 49 demo is the yardstick in the US landscape, here are the Total Viewers.

RANK TITLE (NETWORK) VIEWERS (000)
1. NFL Sunday Night Football (NBC) 16,662
2. NFL Thursday Night Football (Fox/NFL Network) 13,418
3. NCIS (CBS) 12,730
4. Equalizer (CBS) 12,686
5. NFL Monday Night Football (ESPN) 11,266
6. FBI (CBS) 11,073
7. 60 Minutes (CBS) 10,881
8. Chicago Fire (NBC) 10,319
9. Blue Bloods (CBS) 10,161
10. Chicago Med (NBC) 9,850
11. 9-1-1 (Fox) 9,819
12. Chicago PD (NBC) 9,819
13. This Is Us (NBC) 9,477
14. Young Sheldon (CBS) 9,465
15. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox) 8,900
16. FBI: Most Wanted (CBS) 8,898
17. The Voice-Tuesday (NBC) 8,699
18. Bull (CBS) 8,640
19. The Voice-Monday (NBC) 8,590
20. Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC) 8,351
21. The Good Doctor (ABC) 8,304
22. Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) 8,227
23. 60 Minutes Presents (CBS) 8,094
24. NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS) 7,794
25. The Masked Singer (Fox) 7,668
26. Big Sky (ABC) 7,514
27. Magnum P.I. (CBS) 7,481
28. American Idol (ABC) 7,428
29. Dancing with the Stars (ABC) 7,329
30. NCIS: New Orleans (CBS) 7,216
31. Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (ABC) 7,151
32. Station 19 (ABC) 7,141
33. New Amsterdam (NBC) 7,138
34. The Rookie  (ABC) 7,115
35. Mom (CBS) 6,986
36. The Neighborhood (CBS) 6,805
37. Law & Order: SVU (NBC) 6,785
38. Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS) 6,584
39. Seal Team (CBS) 6,526
40. The Bachelor (ABC) 6,461
41. NFL Thursday Night Football (NFL) 6,297
42. American Idol-Monday (ABC) 6,238
43. Clarice (CBS) 6,201
44. United States of Al (CBS) 6,095
45. The Bachelorette (ABC) 6,045
46. S.W.A.T. (CBS) 6,004
47. MacGyver (CBS) 5,897
48. All Rise (CBS) 5,835
49. Celebrity Family Feud (ABC) 5,772
50. Rebel (ABC) 5,735

You can see all 100 here.

7 Responses

  1. The Equalizer!. I am old enough to remember, probably with rose coloured glasses, the Edward Woodward version, which had style and menace and a modicum of believability. This new one is 50 minutes of drek! Full of unlikeable, but affirmative action characters. Even with my advanced age and decrepitude, I could beat the lead character to the buffet at Sizzler, even gifting her a 50 metre head start. If Denzel was dead, you could power a small city from the energy generated from him spinning in his grave.
    My 2c

  2. I hope NCIS will hit 20 seasons (2023-2024 if it gets there?) First seasons was 2003-2004 (2004 on Ten here, when they famously started dropping the long-running Universal or Columbia movie for Criminal Intent – NCIS double on Sundays).

  3. Funny that ‘The Equalizer’ is so near the top in the US and barely makes it as a late night filler here (although most US network drama in general does pretty poorly here these days).

      1. And the Equalizer’s rating plummeted to 1/3 that for subsequent episodes. Of course the real carnage has been what new shows are rating, which is why the Equalizer got multiple season renewals with 7m viewers. There are a lot of people over 50 in the US in the Mid-West who don’t have decent broadband, or the money to subcribe to multiple SVOD services. NCIS peaked at 20m Overnight viewers for S6 and S7, it’s lost over half that and is rating 10m now.

    2. In my opinion Australian audiences no longer follow US ratings trends like they once did, especially watching long running scripted US drama / comedy shows.
      I guess if there was less local ‘reality’ content made to fill necessary local production quotas popular US shows like The Equalizer would get prospectively better viewing numbers at peak viewing times.
      SVOD may eventually broadcast most of these US drama series outside the USA.

      1. More a case the Aussie networks have been left behind as the rest of the world invests in scripted content and continue to offer a varied schedule, even if that variety is sometimes three versions of NCIS back to back.

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