There was an undisputed champion of American television in 2023, and, frankly, it wasn’t even close.
Football — both the collegiate and professional varieties — absolutely crushed the competition when it came to the most-watched television programs of 2023, according to a new report from Sportico, based on Nielsen ratings.
Despite whatever warts that the NFL and college football may have currently, those lingering issues have apparently not deterred fans from tuning into these gridiron battles in droves.
Per Sportico, football made up 97 of the top 100 most-watched television broadcasts of 2023.
The only three non-football-related television broadcasts that cracked the top 100:
- President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address
- The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
- The Academy Awards
The other top 97 television broadcasts were all related to football, including a whopping 94 related to the NFL (93 game broadcasts, plus whatever show that gets the annual post-Super Bowl bump), and three college football games rounded out the top 100.
According to the report, this is the first time that a single sport has been the only entrant on this top 100 list of broadcasts.
Basketball — not the NBA, mind you — just barely missed the cut, as the college basketball championship between the University of Connecticut and San Diego State University came in at 101st place.
Do you watch the NFL?
After college basketball, professional basketball and professional baseball both lagged significantly behind.
Both the NBA and MLB enjoyed ratings peaks during their respective championship series, but came in at 120th and 140th place, respectively.
The NFL, meanwhile, appears to only be growing as a monstrous entity monopolizing the airwaves.
As recently as 2020, the NFL constituted 72 of the top 100 television broadcasts.
Fast forward a year to 2021, and the NFL dominance shifted ever so slightly, as the sports titan made up 75 of the top 100 broadcasts.
In 2022, that number jumped to 82, before jumping all the way to 93 of the top 100 broadcasts this year.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Dallas Cowboys, often referred to as “America’s Team,” were the primary ratings driver for the NFL.
Per Sportico, the Cowboys drew an average of 25.2 million viewers per game across its 13 national TV games. Dallas accounted for 18 of those top 100 broadcasts.
Other prominent teams that drew included the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (16 games in the top 100) and reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles (15 games.)
The Buffalo Bills rounded out the top four NFL draws, by accounting for 13 of the top 100 games.
