Season two's premiere of the post-apocalyptical TV series “The Last of Us” counted 5.3 million viewers across the linear HBO channel and streaming service HBO Max, an increase compared to the first episode of the first season. However, season two's final was watched by only 3.7 million people. The TV show is based on a video game franchise of the same name and was produced by Sony Pictures Television.

In November 2022, around *** million viewers watched the finale episode titled "Rest in Peace" of Season ** of "The Walking Dead." This marked a small increase compared with the finale episode of the previous season.

The 2025 edition of the Super Bowl, which saw the Philadelphia Eagles emerge victorious against the Kansas City Chiefs was watched by ***** million viewers in the United States, making it not only the most watched Super Bowl in history, but also the most popular TV program of all time in the U.S. The second most watched Super Bowl was aired in the previous year, when the Kansas City Chiefs won against the San Francisco 49ers. What is the Super Bowl? The Super Bowl is the last game of the NFL season with the winners of the two football conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), competing with each other. The game determines the champion of the National Football League. The first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967, following the 1966 football season. In that game, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, then of the American Football League, with a score of 35 to 10, winning the first-ever Super Bowl championship. Super Bowl giants The Super Bowl came into being as part of a merger agreement between the two rival football leagues (National Football League and the American Football League) at the time. From 1967 to 1970, the game pitted the champions of the two rival leagues against each other. Since 1971 and the completion of the merger agreement, the winners of the two conferences have squared off against each other. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots have won the most Super Bowl titles, with a total of * each. The Patriots have also appeared in the National Football League’s annual championship game a record ** times, thereby topping the list for Super Bowl appearances.

The graph shows data on the most watched TV series finales of all time in the United States as of August 2018. According to the source, the final episode of M*A*S*H, which aired on February 28, 1983, was the most watched series finale ever, drawing in ***** million viewers.

“NFL Sunday Night Football” was the most watched TV show in the United States in the 2023/2024 season, with roughly **** million viewers. “NFL Monday Night Football” ranked second with approximately ** million viewers. NFL sports broadcasts score high with viewers Football matches and other live sports events have always attracted impressive audiences in the United States, and this popularity also extends to their television broadcasts. In 2023, the Super Bowl LVII was the top primetime telecast in the U.S., drawing nearly *** million viewers to their screens. Furthermore, none of the 10 most successful primetime programs were not football-related, explaining why 30-second advertising slots during the Super Bowl cost an average of ***** million U.S. dollars. Most popular TV networks NBC was the leading ad-supported television network in the United States, with an average viewership of around **** million viewers in 2023. One of its most popular shows during the 2023/2024 season included “Chicago Fire,” a drama that has been on the air for many years. The only other network to surpass **** million viewers in 2023 was CBS, which aired “NCIS” as one of its most successful fictional series.

In 2024, Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers achieved a TV rating of 42.1, up from the all-time low of 36.9 two years prior. In total, the number of Super Bowl viewers exceeded a record 123 million in 2024.

The games of the 2024 World Series, in which the Los Angeles Dodgers achieved a five-game series win over the New York Yankees, were watched by an average of ***** million viewers. This marked the Dodgers' eighth World Series title in franchise history.

In 2025, around **** million Americans watched the Academy Awards ceremony. Oscars viewership fluctuates year by year, however, the last time the ceremony drew in a U.S. audience of more than ** million was back in 2014. The figure recorded in 2021 was the lowest yet, and marked a drop-off of over ** percent from the 2020 audience. Coverage of the Academy Awards Viewership of awards ceremonies can depend on multiple factors, ranging from personal preferences to overall interest in nominees, as well as how much coverage is devoted to the ceremony before and during its broadcast. Interest in upcoming events in the media industry is often generated via social media, which can be extremely effective in generating discussions, interactions, and general awareness. In 2018, the Academy Awards were mentioned *** million times on social media during the ceremony, and have also proved to be some of the most popular TV specials on Twitter in recent years. Conversely, a survey held in early 2019 revealed that ** percent of U.S. adults had not come across any news coverage for the 2019 Academy Awards at all.

The 35th season of the long-running animated comedy show "The Simpsons" drew in an average of ************ viewers, but whilst this figure may seem impressive at first glance, viewer numbers have been on the decline for years. Season 12 pulled in an audience of almost *********** However, viewership has been falling ever since (with the exception of the small spike in viewer numbers between seasons 20 and 21). As viewer numbers for the show have dropped, so has the cost of a 30-second ad spot during "The Simpsons" broadcasts, though the price for an ad during 2018-19 season showed signs of improvement and marked the first increase in around 4 years. Attitudes towards ‘The Simpsons’ Whilst "The Simpsons" has often come under fire for its controversial content and reinforcement of negative stereotypes, the show continues to run and remains popular. "The Simpsons Movie" made over *** million U.S. dollars at the North American box office in 2007 and the film regularly features on video streaming services alongside the show itself. Even in spite of falling viewer numbers the long-running TV series is still held in good favor, especially among younger generations. "The Simpsons" was the favorite contemporary TV show among Millennials according to a survey held in the U.S., and also performed well with respondents in this age group in a ranking of favorite TV shows of all time.

The NBA All-Star game is an annual basketball exhibition game contested between the Eastern Conference and Western Conference All-Stars. The 24 players featured in the game are selected through a voting process among fans, players, and media. The 2025 All-Star game was watched by 4.72 million viewers, which was a decrease of 13 percent from the 5.4 million viewers who tuned into the previous year's game.

In 2024, the average number of Bravo TV viewers in the United States dropped to approximately 436,000, continuing the trend of decline observed over the past years. The viewership has fallen significantly from 941,000 in 2016, marking a decrease of over 50 percent in just eight years.

The NFL is one of the most widely televised sporting leagues in the world. The average television viewership of a regular season NFL game in 2024 was calculated to be **** million. Attendance In addition to this record-breaking TV viewership, the NFL attracts thousands of fans to the stadiums each week to see their favorite teams in action. The NFL has consistently been the major American sports league with the highest average attendance, with an average of almost ** thousand people attending each game in the 2023 season. Moreover, during the 2024 regular season, the average total home attendance per team across the entire NFL was calculated to be *******. The franchise with the highest total attendance for its eight regular-season home games was the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps in part to their comparatively reasonably priced tickets, costing nearly *** U.S. dollars on average, just less than the average ticket price across the NFL at *** U.S. dollars per ticket. Best players Since 1957, the Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award has been given to the NFL player considered to have been the most outstanding during the season. Since the award's introduction, Peyton Manning has received the award the greatest number of times during his career, closely followed by Aaron Rodgers, who has received the award on **** occasions. One other potential indicator of the success of an NFL player is their annual salary. The highest-paid NFL player in 2024 was Dak Prescott, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, who earned **** million U.S. dollars from salary and bonuses and ** million U.S. dollars from endorsement deals during the 2024 season.

In 2024, CBS was the leading ad-supported television network in the United States, with an average viewership of **** million, surpassing the viewership number of NBC. The latter recorded **** people watching the TV channel. Spotlight on CBS CBS is among the oldest and most popular commercial broadcast television and radio networks in the United States. Founded in 1927, the company now operates as a subsidiary of Paramount, with all of its original programming available on the Paramount+ streaming platform. A closer look at the network's recent performance reveals that it ranked fourth among the leading television networks among U.S. adults in 2023. CBS reported an average of *** thousand viewers between the ages of 18 to 49 that year and was only outperformed by NBC, Fox, and ABC. So what are audiences watching? Popular television shows According to the latest data, NFL Sunday Night Football was the most watched TV program in the United States during the ********* season. The sports broadcast, which aired on NBC, scored a respective ***** million viewers during that period. The three most popular fictional programs to make it into the top five were "Yellowstone", "NCIS," and "FBI" broadcast on Paramount Network and CBS.

The 2025 NBA Finals were watched by an average of **** million viewers in the United States. This marked a decline from the previous year when **** million viewers tuned in to watch the Boston Celtics clinch a record 18th NBA championship win against the Dallas Mavericks. How did the 2025 Finals play out? The 2025 championship series was contested between the Oklahoma City Thunder, champions of the Western Conference, and the Indiana Pacers, winners of the Eastern Conference. The Thunder emerged victorious in a back-and-forth seven game series, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander adding a championship ring to his NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP awards for the 2025 season. Celebrations, however, were somewhat overshadowed by a horror Achilles heel injury sustained by Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton in Game 7. How did viewership of the NBA Finals compare to other major US sporting events? In 2025, NBA Finals viewership was only a fraction of the number of viewers of the Super Bowl in the U.S., with the latter exceeding *** million that year. Meanwhile, viewership of the World Series was more comparable to that of the NBA Finals, reaching over 14 million in 2024.

The final round of the 2024 PGA Championship attracted an average U.S. TV audience of nearly five million, representing an increase of around 10 percent on the previous year. The tournament was won by Xander Shauffele for the first time.

What are the most-watched news networks? In November 2023, Fox News was the most watched cable news network in the United States and continues to do well in terms of its primetime audience, with **** million primetime viewers in that period. Fox News viewers in the 25-54 demographic amounted to *** thousand, whilst MSNBC had just *** thousand. When looking at Fox News viewers compared to CNN, the overall average number of primetime viewers was notably different. CNN has been losing viewers in recent years, although during the coronavirus outbreak, tended to pull in a larger audience than usual. Which cable news channel has the most viewers in prime time? Performing well during the mid-evening prime time slot on cable television is the goal of any network that takes its ratings seriously.Cable news networks like Fox, CNN, and MSNBC are engaged in a monthly battle to hit the top spot during primetime and grab the highest cable news ratings during those precious evening hours. Fox News ratings during primetime are generally higher than its two direct competitors, and was the top channel for watching the State of the Union Address in 2020. What is prime time TV? Primetime television is the time at which the audience peaks, and in the United States usually takes place between 8pm and 11pm. TV networks show their most sought after or successful programs during this time, and this slot is where advertisers like to spend their money in order to maximize the number of viewers who will see their products. In fact, many of the most-watched news shows like Hannity or The Rachel Maddow Show which debate news coverage from a particular point of view, draw in massive audiences each month, ultimately contributing to the overall ratings of the network they belong to.

According to a 2017 study, 47 percent of surveyed adults in the United States said that they had seen the 1983 movie ‘Return of the Jedi’, whereas just 34 percent said that they had watched ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, which was released in 2016. The movie franchise first reared its head with ‘Episode IV: A New Hope’ back in 1977 and further films have been steadily hitting cinema screens ever since, albeit nonchronologically.

Star Wars

Star Wars is arguably one of the more confusing franchises out there when it comes to grasping the order of things, especially among those who aren’t fans of the movies. The ‘first’ movie in the story is ‘Episode I: A Phantom Menace’, released in 1999 – 22 years after ‘A New Hope’ (the sixth instalment of the series in terms of story structure).

The movies have traditionally performed well at the North American box office. ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ generated over 930 million U.S. dollars in box office revenue, and as yet there is not a single movie in the franchise to have made less than 200 million. This is good news as ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, ‘The Force Awakens’ and ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ all cost well in excess of that amount to make, placing them in the ranking of most expensive film productions in the world.

Beyond the movies

Star Wars is not just about the movies, but as one of the world’s highest grossing film franchises the influence Star Wars has had outside the movie theater is inevitably impressive. From collectible figures to children’s toys and fancy-dress costumes to video games, Star Wars has permeated industries around the world. In the United States, iconic Star Wars characters Yoda and Princess Leia were the favorites, both of which have become famous in their own right and have been referred to, imitated and turned into merchandise multiple times over since they first entered the public consciousness.

During the 2024 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship - known otherwise as March Madness - the average TV audience in the United States during the entire tournament stood at 2.2 million viewers. This represented an increase of 121 percent from the previous year and a record high since ESPN gained broadcasting rights in 1996. The tournament's championship game also broke viewership records, exceeding the men's final for the first time in history, with an audience of nearly 19 million viewers.

The games of the 2024 NBA Finals had an average TV rating of ***. The 2024 championships were contested between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks and saw the Celtics win 4-1 to claim their record-breaking **** NBA title in franchise history.

Since 1995, TV ratings for the Masters Tournament final round have generally fallen, with the 2024 tournament averaging a rating of ***. This marked a decrease of around **** percent on the previous year, and a decline of nearly ** percent since the turn of the century.