Overview

• Nielsen’s hybrid “big data plus panel” system began for live telecasts on Sept. 1 and expanded to all linear programming with the 2025–26 season start on Sept. 22.
• Sports saw clear lifts versus panel-only counts, with Fox’s first three NFL weekends averaging 22.42 million viewers, up 14 percent, and Amazon’s first two Thursday Night Football games up 19 percent and 23 percent.
• NBC’s opening-weekend NFL games rose by about 1 million viewers under the hybrid tally versus panel-only, ABC/ESPN’s Monday Night Football gained roughly 1 million, and CBS logged a smaller increase of about 300,000 for its early showcase.
• Nielsen introduced new weekly rankings, including a top-25 live sports list and a 250-title “total scheduled programming” chart that placed Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football sixth at about 13.25 million and Jimmy Kimmel Live! seventeenth at 6.47 million.
• Sunday Night Football led the week at 23.87 million, narrowly ahead of CBS’ late afternoon NFL window at 23.77 million, while 60 Minutes topped non-sports with just over 10 million as the charts reflect same-day viewing only.