A18-49+: Networks Update! (2019-25)

Happy Premiere Week!

Last week I went back and updated some of my new show metrics, and today, with a new season dawning, I'm gonna take a look at how the network race has shaken out over that same period. I talked extensively about the 1999-01 seasons for the networks when introducing that data, so I will just leave it to the six seasons that have happened since the last update (2019-25). Here's the full table of the networks' original, non-sports series averages in every regular season:

Year	ABC	CBS	NBC	Fox
1999-00	120	74	112	95
2000-01	94	85	119	106
2001-02	82	94	128	91
2002-03	87	91	114	108
2003-04	82	96	117	105
2004-05	96	106	98	101
2005-06	101	105	84	113
2006-07	106	100	82	121
2007-08	98	93	88	129
2008-09	100	103	82	120
2009-10	98	106	78	123
2010-11	98	106	77	128
2011-12	96	115	77	119
2012-13	93	109	93	106
2013-14	96	106	103	94
2014-15	103	100	100	94
2015-16	96	102	103	99
2016-17	98	99	111	88
2017-18	98	99	110	91
2018-19	96	97	109	100
2019-20	99	93	102	111
2020-21	105	95	96	104
2021-22	98	103	103	95
2022-23	98	104	100	98
2023-24	102	111	93	92
2024-25	103	119	91	77

When we last checked in on this stuff in 2018-19, we were at the tail end of a three-year NBC surge, brought on by the introduction of megahit This Is Us, The Voice near the peak of its powers, and the Chicago series still on the upswing. Just after that came a brief Fox surge driven by the Masked Singer, and then a return to mid-2010s-style four-way parity in 2021-22 and 2022-23, with all four networks averaging between a 95 and 105.

In the last two years, things have been moving fast, especially the rapid ascension of CBS and the rapid meltdown of Fox. A post-This Is Us NBC with declining Chicagos has dropped off as well, while ABC (probably the most consistently average network across the last 20 years) has been a little better than normal thanks to Dancing with the Stars and American Idol.

The Rise of CBS 

For CBS, the 119 average in 2024-25 was one of the strongest relative performances for any network in the era, especially impressive for a three-hour network that remains committed to full programming on Friday. How did they do it? I think breaking down their average by day of the week tells the story well:

Year	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Sunday
2015-16	113	118	115	117	79	90
2016-17	109	115	109	113	90	96
2017-18	92	107	113	138	82	91
2018-19	90	103	109	130	80	96
2019-20	85	110	112	84	82	95
2020-21	85	105	81	91	75	132
2021-22	102	111	115	92	78	129
2022-23	98	102	111	95	93	130
2023-24	90	102	145	98	84	134
2024-25	102	104	148	112	88	158

Five years ago, CBS had three pretty significant trouble nights: Monday (with mediocre drama performers like Magnum P.I. and All Rise), Thursday (where everything got much weaker immediately after The Big Bang Theory ended) and Sunday (another home to ratings-challenged dramas like God Friended Me and Madam Secretary).

By 2024-25, pretty much all those problems were solved. The first big step was the 2021 premiere of The Equalizer on Sunday, instantly raising the standard for that night. The next season brought the move of NCIS to Monday, which greatly helped that night while not particularly hurting the FBI-led Tuesday. And the last piece of the puzzle was the premiere of Matlock on Thursday last season, elevating a 9/8c hour that had struggled with post-TBBT comedies and So Help Me Todd.

Having a schedule with so few weaknesses is quite a feat. Only a few times in the entire era has a network's average programming on all five weeknights gone above the league average, as CBS did in 2024-25. ABC did it in 1999-00 by putting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? everywhere. CBS did it three times in the middle of the era (2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13) with a basic template of double-comedies, NCIS, Survivor and 60 Minutes/The Amazing Race. Fox also pulled this off a couple times around the same period (2010-11 and 2011-12) with House/Glee/Idol/Idol/comedies.

But getting to a 119 network-wide average also meant several of the strengths got stronger. Survivor's 90-minute format and huge ratings gains took Wednesday night to a whole new level starting in 2023-24. Fire Country raised the already high Friday standard. And the NFL-inflated 60 Minutes plus a full season of Tracker were well more than enough to cancel out CBS' only real problem spot, the second half of Sunday.

You can argue this doesn't compare cleanly with strong networks in previous eras, since so many of the competitors are trying a lot less hard nowadays. But honestly, I'm not sure how much better the other nets would be doing even if they were trying, so I'll still give the eye some flowers.

The Fall of Fox 

...then there's Fox. How did they go from basically a league-average network to about as poor as anyone has ever done network-wide in the space of two years? You might remember that I counted the WWE in its average, and so maybe the WWE's huge ratings covered up the collapse until it was finally revealed in 2024-25.

While this is basically true, it was really only a one-, maybe two-year phenomenon:

Year	Full Average	Without WWE	WWE
2019-20	111	118	88
2020-21	104	108	93
2021-22	95	93	105
2022-23	98	90	137
2023-24	92	75	165
2024-25	77	77	n/a

In fact, at the height of the Masked Singer-led surge in the COVID-affected years, the WWE was actually a drag on the network average (if not as much as Friday has been for other strong networks). While it was bringing up the average by 2021-22, the "cover-up" really only affected 2022-23 and especially 2023-24. What the without-WWE numbers reveal is that this collapse of Fox was very real. It just happened a year earlier than it appeared, and was fully complete by 2023-24; last season was actually a tiny comeback. The network is two years into a slump as bad as the worst years of NBC's post-Must See TV doldrums. To examine that, here's the day breakdown:

Year	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Sunday
2019-20	124	87	175	74	88	109
2020-21	113	64	154	103	93	85
2021-22	108	69	106	61	105	108
2022-23	88	78	97	82	137	105
2023-24	59	63	81	75	165	94
2024-25	62	60	97	75	n/a	90

While the struggles of Animation Domination are taking a toll on Sunday, the NFL lead-in juice is still enough to keep that night from being a huge player in Fox's downfall, relatively speaking. Tuesday is quite weak, but the night has been terrible for Fox pretty much since Glee and New Girl were dominating in 2011-12. And, again, Thursday is bad, but not particularly worse than it has been since Fox dumped American Idol in 2016.

The real culprits in the more recent collapse are Wednesday, where The Masked Singer went from megahit to mediocre, and Monday, which has become another test pattern like Tuesday since 9-1-1 went away. I might be missing something but I think these last two years are the first time a network has been below league average on all five weeknights since CBS all the way back in the pre-Survivor/CSI season of 1999-00. Even NBC at its worst could count on The Biggest Loser and SVU to keep Tuesday afloat.

The barren NBC of 15 years ago flirted with giving up entirely, but went back to more conventional practices and saw The Voice, the Chicagos and This Is Us bring them back from the brink. In the big 2025, it's very much worth wondering if Fox will care enough to even bother trying to improve their fortunes.

The Others

For completeness, I will post these daily breakdowns for the other two networks across the last six years. Some good stuff here, but since the network-wide averages did not shift as drastically, in the interest of actually getting this post out I'm not gonna write 'em up. Maybe next time, or feel free to do so in the comments. :-) Enjoy the new season!

ABC:

Year	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Sunday
2019-20	124	90	90	109	72	100
2020-21	139	110	76	116	85	98
2021-22	120	96	74	93	90	105
2022-23	111	97	84	91	87	114
2023-24	119	106	85	111	79	117
2024-25	131	129	85	88	74	130

NBC:

Year	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Sunday
2019-20	132	133	135	69	67	52
2020-21	105	114	132	85	62	51
2021-22	96	107	146	106	67	90
2022-23	116	93	134	112	66	55
2023-24	103	86	108	99	68	56
2024-25	105	83	119	91	66	69