The “linear TV is dying” story misses something: broadcast still knows how to build and sustain hits, and the early 2026-27 season is making that harder to ignore.
Broadcast’s fall numbers turn positive
CBS premiere week, Oct. 4-10, averaged 4.4 million viewers, up 9% from the same week last year. Fox’s season-to-date average is up 10%. The lift is not confined to one show: Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” spinoff “Marshals” opened to 8.21 million viewers on CBS, and it is running 8% above its Season 1 average.
Fox’s “Best Medicine” second-season premiere was the network’s biggest fall entertainment telecast in nearly four years. ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” sixth-season premiere drew its largest audience in a year, and NBC’s “One Chicago” premieres all rose in the 18-49 demo.
Why this matters for streamers
The rebound lands in the same week Netflix has been reshuffling after co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company needed “better execution in the U.S.” Broadcast’s advantage is not hidden: it returns familiar series on a predictable schedule, extends proven franchises, and pairs scripted shows with unscripted anchors.
Audiences do not have to wait years between seasons, so they don’t become harsher critics or forget the plot. Broadcast also avoided the sophomore slump that hits many streaming shows.
Franchise IP is doing the heavy lifting
- “The Traitors: New Blood” on NBC is the network’s No. 1 show of the season so far in the 18-49 demo, with 64% of viewers new to the franchise.
- “NCIS: New York” launched to 5.6 million viewers, up 53% from the slot’s premiere a year ago with “NCIS: Origins.”
- New CBS dramas such as “Cupertino” and NBC’s “Line of Fire” are steered by showrunners with proven linear track records.
The streaming data also has signals
Nielsen’s Hispanic audience deep dive shows streaming hits overindex with Latino viewers: “The Rip” opened at 26% Hispanic and “War Machine” at 28%, above the 19% overall TV share. Spanish-language originals “A Father’s Miracle” and “Firebreak” drew 81% and 54% Hispanic audiences respectively; Marcello Hernández’s Netflix special held 32%-35% in its first three weeks.
Paramount+’s “Lioness” wrapped its third season with an 8.5 million average, up 62% from Season 2, and a finale that hit 9.7 million in seven days. In streaming rankings, “Below” stayed No. 1 with 21.2 million views in week two, “The Diplomat” Season 4 opened to 4.8 million in four days, and Disney’s “Coven Academy” passed 11 million hours viewed in its first week.
For media planners, the signal is that live or same-week broadcast still offers predictable reach, especially around franchise nights. For streaming teams, the lesson is operational: release cadence, franchise extension and creator relationships can do as much retention work as raw content spend.
Source: TheWrap
