ABC is staying on top, it seems, as Nielsen’s ratings for the September to May broadcast season covering 2024-2025 reveal the network helms the top five broadcast series, including the highest ratings for new comedies and dramas with Shifting Gears and High Potential.
Among the top five broadcast shows among Adults 18-49 in multiplatform rankings were High Potential with a 3.85 rating, Abbott Elementary with a 3.25 rating, The Rookie with 2.49 rating, Shifting Gears with a 2.39 rating, and 9-1-1 with a 2.38 rating.
Overall, the network owned seven of the top 20 shows among the demo, with the addition of Will Trent and Grey’s Anatomy, coming in with ratings of 1.64 and 1.62, respectively. Overall, ABC has the most highly-rated shows, followed by CBS with six, Fox with four, and NBC with three.
High Potential came in at number one in the new drama category, the Kaitlin Olson-led series more than doubling its closest new competitive drama, CBS’s popular Matlock, starring Kathy Bates, which ranks with a 1.75 rating. Meanwhile, Shifting Gears outpaced its closest competitor, CBS’s Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which came in at a 1.79 rating.
Disney / Gilles Mingasson
ABC also claimed the top spot for a returning drama with The Rookie, beating CBS’s Tracker, which came in with a 2.15 rating. As for the top returning comedy, Abbott remains a favorite, edging out CBS’s other popular comedy, Ghosts.
In other words, ABC is keeping a hold on the lead, and such was the case with High Potential, which stood as the number one drama among total viewers, with 16.41 million, and number one new show among adults 18-49. The show’s streaming performance on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ also more than doubled the next highest competitive drama, Tracker.
The show grew by over 50 percent in Multiplatform+7 ratings through 35 days of viewing, and for the season, including encores, the show logged early 13 billion minutes-watched on linear and streaming platforms.
What do you think of these rating results? Weigh in on the comments section below, and stay tuned to find out which shows own the field as we head into the 2025-2026 season.
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
