Of the top 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2022, 82 were NFL games. This stunning fact comes from a series of charts, graphs and reporting from Sportico today about last year's Nielsen ratings. That number is up from 2021, where 75 out of the top 100 were pro NFL games. Well over 90 percent of the most-watched programs were sports, and American football seems to be the only thing Americans are tuning into in large numbers. Possibly the only thing we can agree on as a nation: football is popular.
With the exception of President Biden's State of the Union address on March 1, the top 20 most-viewed broadcasts of 2022 were all NFL games. You would have to go all the way down to number 40 to get something non-sports related: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Will Smith's slap at the Academy Awards was number 77. Otherwise, it's mostly football with some college sports, the World Cup, the Olympics and the Kentucky Derby.
Data visualization is an art and @LevAkabas is a master at it for sports. Another great way to illustrate sports’ dominance: https://t.co/OdgQUMNHKQ pic.twitter.com/EaV1KD4q6t
— Kendall Baker (@kendallbaker) January 6, 2023
The types of TV content that Americans have wanted to watch most over the past 4 calendar years:
— Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) January 6, 2023
• big football games 🏈🏆
• politicians arguing 🇺🇸
• slightly less big football games 🏈
(in that order) pic.twitter.com/zBRSY9Vadm
If you were wondering what the most-watched TV show was, it was "FBI" on CBS, which gets an average of over seven million viewers. If you'd like to read more about this, check out the Sportico article.