Weekly numbers, March 16-22: The Madness descends

This being a data-oriented effort and all, let’s dive into the weekly TV numbers, with some commentary and context about what they mean.

Ratings don’t come as fast as they used to. Partly that’s because overnight Nielsen numbers, which used to be the definitive word in how a show performed, don’t really mean that much anymore outside of live events. Your typical comedy or drama will grow by at least 50 percent, and often more, within a week thanks to streaming (mostly) and DVR playback (some). And since the biggest three broadcasters’ parent companies all own streaming services (ABC/Hulu, CBS/Paramount+ and NBC/Peacock), that additional viewing matters. Most Fox shows also have next-day streaming on Hulu.

Nielsen has also changed the way it collects ratings information. At the start of this TV season, it added a big data element to its long-standing panel of TV homes, and that pushes the release of same-day ratings back a day or so. Weekly ratings for broadcast and cable used to get distributed on Tuesday mornings; now they come on Wednesday afternoon. Streaming ratings, which lag by about a month due to Nielsen’s deal with its clients, arrive on Thursdays.

All of that is to say that this weekly post will usually reach your inboxes late on Thursday, once all the numbers are in. You’ll see the top 10 shows in network primetime, the top 20 for network and cable, regardless of time of day, and at least the top 10 overall streaming titles. Depending on the week I’ll throw in some other streaming info too.

Below are the weekly totals for March 16-22 for linear networks and Feb. 23-March 1 for streaming. Spoiler: It was a very sports-heavy week on broadcast and cable with the opening days of March Madness, particularly outside of primetime.

*By far, this is the most watched WBC game in the competition’s short history. The 2023 final, which aired on FS1 and Fox Deportes, had 5.4 million viewers; the biggest game of this year’s tournament before the final, was the U.S./Dominican Republic semifinal with 7.37 million.

**This was the biggest game of the early March Madness rounds in primetime, but as you’ll see in the next charts, far from the biggest overall.

***High Potential’s same-day ratings are up about 13 percent from its first season — and it’s also one of the most streamed network shows. After a week, it will probably more than double its total audience.

(Note: Viewers for nightly newscasts are averages of their weeknight broadcasts. Weekend newscasts are noted by day)

*This was a late-afternoon Saturday game won on a buzzer-beater by St. John’s. The game-winning shot was enabled by some truly galaxy-brained coaching from Kansas’ Bill Self, as detailed here by the great Rodger Sherman.

**The WBC and college hoops pushed World News Tonight down the rankings a little, but there will be a number of weeks to come where it gets more viewers than anything in primetime.

***Four weeks into its life, Marshals (a Yellowstone spinoff) looks to have supplanted its fellow CBS Sunday show Tracker as the most watched drama on broadcast.

*Netflix released the second half of Bridgerton season 4 on Feb. 26, and those four new episodes accounted for about 2.56 billion of its 3.37 billion total minutes. So in other words, just those four episodes would hav led the week; the remaining 810 million minutes of viewing were for past episodes; Nielsen counts time spent watching all episodes of a show in its weekly streaming totals.

**Paradise and The Traitors both had their best weeks ever on the streaming chart — Paradise with the opening of its second season on Feb. 23 and The Traitors with its season 4 finale.

***Bluey was the most streamed show in the U.S. in both 2024 and 2025. It has made the Nielsen streaming charts for 178 straight weeks, dating back to October 2022. There are probably kids watching Bluey right now who weren’t yet born the last time it didn’t make a top 10

*The late 2000s-2010s era of TNT original programming has had a sizable presence on the streaming charts in the past year: The Closer and Southland have also made appearances this year, and Animal Kingdom had a 13-week run last summer.

**On-air ratings for The Hunting Party at NBC are underwhelming, but it got a nice Netflix boost when the first season premiered there in February.

Please tell your friends and any ratings nerds (complimentary) you know about The Data Stream. I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription too, as it will help me cover distribution and hosting costs with Beehiiv and just maybe light a pathway to doing this full time. Thanks!

Photo: Kaitlin Olson in High Potential’s March 17 episode. Credit: Disney/Christine Bartolucci