It's time for a journey through the CBS Sunday schedule in 2025-26...
fall
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 60 Minutes | Tracker | The Equalizer | FBI (R) | 147 | ||
| 295 | 157 | 94 | 57 | ||||
| 226 | 135 | 80 | |||||
| 2025-26 | 60 Minutes | Tracker | The Road | 165 (+12%) | |||
| 435 (+47%) | 163 (+4%) | 64 (-32%) | |||||
| 299 (+32%) | 122 (-10%) | 74 (-8%) | |||||
| VsAvg | +108% | +28% | -8% | +55% | |||
| Rank | 1/27 | 4/27 | 20/27 | 1/27 | |||
Football-fueled 60 Minutes and Tracker kept chugging along for CBS, but new unscripted Tracker lead-out The Road completely bombed later in the night.
winter
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Tracker | Watson | The Equalizer | 93 | |||
| 128 | 80 | 72 | |||||
| 2025-26 | Marshals | Tracker | Watson | 144 (+54%) | |||
| 207 (+61%) | 149 (+85%) | 77 (+7%) | |||||
| VsAvg | +116% | +65% | -1% | +64% | |||
| Rank | 1//27 | 2/27 | 14/27 | 27 | |||
CBS got a big start on March 1 from Yellowstone spin-off Marshals (224) and a decent week two hold (190). As usual with CBS, that's all we get for the winter average, because DST kicked in the next week.
spring
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Tracker | Watson | The Equalizer | 103 | |||
| 152 | 88 | 70 | |||||
| 2025-26 | Marshals | Tracker | Watson | 119 (+16%) | |||
| 156 (+3%) | 133 (+51%) | 69 (-1%) | |||||
| VsAvg | +68% | +55% | -4% | +43% | |||
| Rank | 1/27 | 2/27 | 19/27 | 2/27 | |||
Marshals came back to earth somewhat for the meat of its run, with most episodes somewhere in the 140-150 vicinity, plus a couple sports-fueled bumps and a couple weaker eps at the end of the season (117 -> 110). The Tracker retention looked better as Marshals inched downward, and it even built on the lead-in a couple times in the last month. Watson returned to Sunday and improved on its megabomb Monday levels, but struggled to retain 50% of the Tracker demo.
Rating the Ratings (about grades)
| Name | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | Plus | Label | Plusy2y | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 Minutes* | 0.3 | 0.74 | 1.7 | +7% | 247 | megahit | +14% | detail |
| Marshals | 0.3 | 0.48 | 0.7 | 160 | big hit | detail | ||
| Tracker | 0.3 | 0.44 | 0.6 | -10% | 146 | hit | -5% | detail |
| The Road | 0.1 | 0.20 | 0.3 | 66 | flop | detail | ||
| Watson | 0.1 | 0.17 | 0.3 | -53% | 58 | flop | -51% | detail |
60 Minutes: It was stronger with the sports lead-ins but, like AFV from the ABC Sunday post, it also looked stronger in the episodes without them. Despite all the buzz around overhauls at CBS News, the ratings continued to look good. Grade: A-.
Marshals: Both halves of the final season of Yellowstone (fall 2022 and fall 2024) were in the general vicinity of a 300 Plus. Even getting half of that from a spin-off is a big win for CBS, though I'm not sure if I would consider it as impressive as season one of Tracker. Still, it's a new show self-starting with a big hit average in 2026, so it's a Grade: A. The NFL lead-ins in the fall may bring in some more former Yellowstone fans.
Tracker: The spring run moved an hour later but had a huge lead-in. I think on balance it's fair to say the show was a little weaker year-to-year in the spring run, which is really more a nod to how hot it was at the end of last season. Overall, it's still a really strong performer, especially considering the carnage elsewhere on the network. Grade: B+.
Watson: Already updated.
The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.
Previous Breakdowns for CBS Sunday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25
Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CBS Sunday.
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