These Are the 100 Most-Watched TV Shows of the 2017-18 Season: Winners and Losers

If there was a recurring theme during the recent broadcast network upfronts, it was this: Ratings must die. “We are in a new era of media and it’s time to retire the Nielsen television metric,” Turner president David Levy said. “While it undoubtedly served its purpose, it no longer fully captures how to successfully measure an audience in today’s landscape.”

Of course, complaining about Nielsen and traditional ratings is nothing new. And these days, virtually every outlet has embraced its own version of multi-platform program measurement — including TV, DVR, VOD and streaming viewership. Levy pointed to audience targeting and other methods as better ways of selling their wares. At the NBCUniversal upfront, ad sales chairman Linda Yaccarino pushed the company’s new “CFlight” metric.

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“I still cannot believe I have to get up this stage and talk about legacy measurement,” Yaccarino said, dismissing the current “C3” standard (which measures three days worth of commercial viewing). When the C3 was introduced in 2007, she quipped, “Meghan Markle was on ‘Deal Or No Deal.’”

Nonetheless, getting everyone on the same page remains difficult. Rob Tuck, The CW’s executive vice president of national sales, notes that ad agencies are reluctant to completely get rid of tools that include Nielsen ratings.

“I have a hard time believing that the agency side and client side of this business is going to give up the currency and pricing that they’ve had for a very long time,” Tuck told reporters on an upfronts conference call. “That’s a challenge on both sides. But I don’t see that going away anytime soon.”

Tuck added: “We have been as vocal with Nielsen and the frustrations we have. We’ve been looking at the multiplatform and bringing it together for a long time… if business can figure out the ratings and currency in some form across a multi-platform distribution, you can layer on top of that all of the other stuff everyone’s been talking about.”

Ratings are also still the best way to compare the linear performance of shows both on broadcast and cable. And with another TV season drawing to a close, IndieWire looked at the Season-to-Date rankers for broadcast and cable, using the most recent Live+7 ratings (which include seven days’ worth of DVR and video on-demand usage).

Here’s a final look at some of the hits and misses of 2017–2018, followed by our complete list of the most-watched shows of the season, according to both adults 18-49 and total viewers.

HIGHS

“Roseanne“: The story of the year, “Roseanne” was tops among both adults 18-49 (knocking out “The Walking Dead”) and total viewers (ending the dominance of “Sunday Night Football”). The return of the Roseanne Barr sitcom after two decades was expected to attract some interest, but the show’s tremendous opening — averaging 27.3 million viewers after seven days of DVR and VOD usage — still surprised. The show has obviously dropped since then, but the impact was swift, as talk of a shift toward more multi-camera sitcoms dominated the lead-up to the upfronts, and “middle America” became a hot topic — leading Fox to dust off the cancelled “Last Man Standing” for next season. “I do feel like there is a lot of interest right now in the four-camera, multi-cam show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said. “We at ABC have not had as much success with that traditionally than some of our competitors. I think ‘Roseanne’ changed the game for us in that respect.”

“The Good Doctor,” “Young Sheldon” and “9-1-1”: Who says broadcast TV is dead? A year after “This Is Us” gave NBC and the traditional networks a shot in the arm, ABC, CBS and Fox got their own freshman success stories. “The Good Doctor” was the year’s top-rated new drama and “Young Sheldon” the biggest new comedy, while “9-1-1” came on strong in midseason, giving Fox its new highest-rated show. As for “This Is Us,” the show actually grew year-to-year (5.4 rating vs. 4.8), thanks to a plum slot behind the Super Bowl. That made “This Is Us” the top-rated drama overall this season, leapfrogging over “The Walking Dead.”

“Jersey Shore Family Reunion”: Nostalgia was big business this year, and not just “Roseanne.” NBC’s “Will & Grace” revival ended the season in the top 15, and ABC’s “American Idol” won over skeptics by performing respectably. But who knew there was such a hunger to see more of Snooki, J-Woww and the Situation? Apparently MTV did, and it paid off: “Jersey Shore Reunion” ended the season at No. 39 among adults 18-49, behind only “The Walking Dead,” “American Horror Story” and football as the top-rated cable program of the season.

LOWS

“The Walking Dead,” “Empire,” “American Crime Story”: Phenoms can’t stay phenoms forever. The AMC zombie thriller still has bite, but it’s not as potent. “The Walking Dead” ended the season with a 5.3 rating among adults 18-49 — huge, but also a huge dip from last year’s 8.0 (and 9.6 the year before that). “Creatively, we are doing some different things in Season 9,” AMC programming president David Madden said. “Season 9 takes a big time jump. There are a lot of new situations that propel us into a very different tone. You look across the board at ratings, every show is dropping from where it used to be. But we’re still looking at big numbers, so we’re hoping for a long future with ‘The Walking Dead.'” As for FX’s “Empire,” the show continues to perform, but at a 2.8 rating, was down from last year’s 4.3, and the previous year’s 6.6. And the second installment of FX’s “American Crime Story,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” couldn’t quite capture the tremendous audience of the first. While “The People v. O.J. Simpson” hit the top 20 in the 2015-2016 season with a 3.1 rating, the sequel averaged a 1.0.

“Designated Survivor,” “Kevin Can Wait,” “The Brave”: These shows get the dubious distinction of being the highest-rated shows among adults 18-49 that were ultimately canceled. All three shows (interestingly, one from each network: ABC, CBS, and NBC, respectively) averaged a 1.6 rating in the demo. (Fox hasn’t yet made a determination on “Ghosted,” which also averaged a 1.6 and could still join this list.) “The Brave” was cut after one season, while “Designated Survivor” and “Kevin Can Wait” were put out of their misery after hobbling through two seasons and many on-screen and behind-the-scene changes. “Designated Survivor,” which averaged a 2.9 rating last year, went through showrunner shuffles, while “Kevin Can Wait” (2.2 last year) killed a mother.

“The X-Files”: The truth is here. The return of Mulder and Scully was huge in 2016, making it one of that season’s top-rated shows (4.8 rating). This time around, the novelty had worn off: The second return of “The X-Files” averaged just a 1.4 rating. Star Gillian Anderson has said she is ready to move on and won’t return for any more, and Fox seemed to agree.

Marvel: The movie juggernaut still hasn’t been able to translate that success on TV — or at least to broadcast. (We still have no idea how the Netflix shows are doing.) “Marvel’s Inhumans” and “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” both tied at a 1.2 rating, barely making it into the top 100. “Inhumans,” which was canceled after one season, actually averaged more viewers last year than “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” That may be one reason “S.H.I.E.L.D.” won’t be back until summer 2019.

Here are the top series rankers according to adults 18-49 and total viewers, featuring seven days of time-shifted viewing. Most recent data is through May 14; these ratings will be updated as new numbers come in.

TOP 100 SHOWS OF 2017-2018, ADULTS 18-49

America’s most-watched series of the 2017-2018 season in the key advertising demographic (measured in ratings points) are …

TOP 100 SHOWS OF 2017-2018, TOTAL VIEWERS

America’s most-watched series of the 2017-2018 season are …

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