EXCLUSIVE: Buoyed by procedurals and sports, NBC is planting its flag as the top broadcaster in the first two weeks of the 2025-26 TV season.
The Law & Order franchise were among the first scripted series to return to the network, with both Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU showing season-over-season growth.
In seven days, the flagship show put up 6M cross-platform viewers for its Season 25 premiere, while SVU managed 7.6M viewers for its Season 27 debut, per data from NBCUniversal. From week one to week two, both shows eked out another 2% uptick in their audiences as well.
On streaming along, both shows saw their best performances ever with Law & Order up 56% year-over-year and SVU up 46%.
The One Chicago franchise also started strong this season, particularly on Peacock, where all three shows saw year-over-year growth. On streaming, Chicago Med was up 21%, Chicago Fire got a 13% lift, and Chicago P.D. saw 11% growth.
Naturally, though, football has been the big winner. Sunday Night Football was the top program of the first week of the TV season — of which NBC delivered five of the Top 10 shows.
The Voice and America’s Got Talent also performed quite well, both appearing in the top six entertainment-only programs of the week. The Voice is also up over last season’s average audience on Peacock, NBCU said.
NBC is also seeing early success with its newest offering, On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. The reality competition series has racked up 5.5M viewers across NBC and Peacock through its first two episodes, per the company.
All of this has helped NBC secure a seventh consecutive season rising above its competitors in the seven-day viewership window for the first week of the TV season. It certainly creates strong momentum for the remainder of the season, though the network will face some stiff competition as the rest of the broadcasters continue to roll out their scripted slates this month. CBS, in particular, has yet to unleash its own slew of popular procedurals, which begin rolling out October 12.