IndieWire Best of 2018

A few years ago, the joke among network TV execs was that “flat is the new up” — meaning that you could tout victory if your network had managed to at least hold steady and not lose more viewers.

Those were innocent times. Now, with so many channels slipping year-to-year by double digits, perhaps “single digit declines are the new up” should now be the industry mantra. In 2018, TV strategists who are used to erosion were nonetheless stunned by how quickly younger viewers are disappearing from linear TV. “We’re seeing real accelerated declines in live viewing,” one research exec told IndieWire. “People are changing their behavior. Maybe people are watching more efficiently.” Nielsen doesn’t report on the people watching video on mobile phones, iPads and laptops, but there’s a sense that viewers are using different platforms to time shift their viewing, the way they used to use DVRs.

With a few notable exceptions, young-skewing networks, as you might expect, were hit hardest in 2018 — and that included the Spanish-language channels, as that diverse demographic tends to be younger.

Read More:The 32 Most Anticipated New TV Shows of 2019

It’s not all gloom and doom, however. Thanks to both the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, NBC managed to increase its audience by 9 percent, making it the most-watched network of 2018 (taking the crown from CBS). And although advertisers may snub them, older viewers are helping propel a new generation of classic TV channels. “[Older adult viewing levels] are much more stable than younger demos,” the researcher said.

Other networks seeing viewership growth in 2018 included Fox News Channel (once again the most-watched cable network), MSNBC, Ion, TNT, Hallmark, TLC, A&E, Me TV, MTV, Travel Channel, Nat Geo, GSN, Oxygen, and Science Channel.

Here are some of the notable winners and losers from 2018:

HIGHS

MTV: Written off as a has-been network a few years ago, MTV once again has a Situation on its hands. The return of the “Jersey Shore” crew has been part of a recipe for growth at the network, as “Jersey Shore Family Vacation” (now renewed for a third season) helped spark a ratings revival. Under president Chris McCarthy, who engineered the turnaround by tapping back into MTV’s late 2000s reality brand, the network was also helped by new hits such as “Floribama Shore,” “Ex on the Beach” and “Siesta Key.” As a result, viewership was up 13 percent in 2018, with adults 18-49 numbers up 17 percent.

Story continues

Classic TV and repeats: As much as everyone talks about Peak TV and how much original scripted TV is currently being produced, an increasing number of viewers are instead gravitating toward the old stuff. Me TV, in particular, is continuing to grow as its roster of over-the-air stations gets stronger. The network has leaped over TV Land and is within striking distance of Nick at Nite — two networks that pioneered the “classic TV” format before focusing on more contemporary fare. Ion, which focuses on more recent procedural drama repeats, is also growing, as are some of the “diginets” that focus on library fare, including Laff and Escape.

NBC: The Peacock network aired five of the year’s top 10 telecasts, including Super Bowl LII — as always, the most-watched program of the year. But also on the list: The year’s top-rated entertainment broadcast, the Super Bowl lead-out edition of “This Is Us” (in which a Crockpot kills Jack Pearson); the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies; and the Nov. 4 Sunday Night Football game between New England and Green Bay. Of course, what goes up must come down: NBC will have to adjust to a 2019 without either the Big Game or the Olympic games.

TNT, A&E, TLC, Nat Geo, Oxygen: These are among the few major cable networks that managed to either stay flat or post increases among both total viewers and adults under 50. Given what’s going on in the business, that is an impressive feat.

Read More:Top Rated Shows of 2017: Here’s How the Super Bowl, Oscars, ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ Faced Off

LOWS

CNN: While Fox News and MSNBC posted slight ratings increases in 2018, CNN was down 6 percent. (All three cable news networks were down in the 18-49 demo, with CNN dipping the most.) Could it be that partisans are choosing either Fox News or MSNBC, leaving fewer in the middle? Could Donald Trump’s non-stop attacks on the channel be having an impact? Or are viewers tiring of Jeff Zucker’s steady diet of politics-as-sport, bringing on pundits to yell at each other — including truly terrible talking heads like Rick Santorum? Likely all of the above — but CNN could at least do something about that last reason.

Kids TV: It’s probably no surprise that the kid-targeted networks are being hurt the most as a new generation of kids ignore linear TV to either watch YouTube videos, play Fortnite, or binge TV on one of the streaming services. Nickelodeon was down 29 percent in 2018, while Cartoon Network is off a stunning 36 percent. (Cartoon’s older sibling Adult Swim, which targets 18-24-year-olds, is also off by 12 percent.) Disney Channel is commercial-free, and therefore not on this list, but its tween network Disney XD is down 23 percent. The lone bright spot? Disney Junior, the preschool network, leapfrogged over competitor Nick Jr. and is up by 4 percent.

“Family” TV: The only thing doing worse than networks geared towards kids are the networks attempting to reach the whole family. Sorry to say, there’s just no such thing as co-viewing anymore. Universal morphed its preschool network Sprout into Universal Kids — in the hopes of broadening its reach — but instead dived 73 percent. Discovery Family, which also attempts to reach kids and their parents, is down 46 percent.

Byron Allen: The comedian-turned-mogul bought the Weather Channel earlier this year for $300 million, just as the network — which had seen its ratings grow by 14 percent in 2017 — dropped back down by 20 percent. (This, despite a seemingly non-stop barrage of weather news.) Allen is also behind Comedy TV, which has the distinction of being the least-watched ad-supported network measured by Nielsen.

Here’s the ranker of almost every ad-supported broadcast and cable network in 2018 (with the exception of certain digital networks, as well as cable networks that aren’t measured by Nielsen), according to total viewers. (Below this chart, we also rank the year’s top 50 most-watched networks in the adults 18-49 category.)

THE MOST-WATCHED NETWORKS OF 2018 (BY TOTAL VIEWERS)



NETWORK 2018 VIEWERS 2017 VIEWERS % CHANGE 1 NBC 7,876,000 7,224,000 +9% 2 CBS 7,385,000 7,975,000 -7% 3 ABC 5,423,000 5,595,000 -3% 4 Fox 4,401,000 4,701,000 -6% 5 Fox News Channel 2,481,000 2,419,000 +3% 6 MSNBC 1,789,000 1,607,000 +11% 7 ESPN 1,764,000 1,889,000 -7% 8 USA Network 1,518,000 1,661,000 -9% 9 HGTV 1,461,000 1,533,000 -5% 10 Univision 1,448,000 1,663,000 -13% 11 The CW 1,418,000 1,579,000 -10% 12 TBS

1,393,000 1,509,000 -8% 13 Ion

1,350,000 1,268,000 +6% 14 TNT 1,323,000 1,316,000 +1% 15 History 1,239,000 1,326,000 -7% 16 Telemundo 1,216,000 1,385,000 -12% 17 Hallmark Channel 1,190,000 1,153,000 +3% 18 Discovery

1,178,000 1,354,000 -13% 19 Investigation Discovery 1,102,000 1,097,000 0% 20 TLC 1,066,000 972,000 +10% 21 A&E 1,013,000 987,000 +3% 22 CNN

986,000 1,049,000 -6% 23 Food Network 984,000 982,000 0% 24 Nickelodeon 932,000 1,315,000 -29% 25 AMC 921,000 1,078,000 -15% 26 FX 903,000 1,036,000 -13% 27 Bravo

879,000 920,000 -4% 28 Adult Swim

845,000 962,000 -12% 29 Nick at Nite 737,000 887,000 -17% 30 ME TV

702,000 617,000 +14% 31 Lifetime 699,000 838,000 -17% 32 MTV

655,000 578,000 +13% 33 TV Land

642,000 710,000 -10% 34 VH1

640,000 646,000 -1% 35 Freeform 621,000 744,000 -17% 36 Hallmark Movies & Mysteries 596,000 682,000 -13% 37 Syfy 574,000 640,000 -10% 38 Disney Junior 565,000 545,000 +4% 39 INSP 550,000 529,000 +4% 40 Unimas 545,000 702,000 -22% 41 Cartoon Network 544,000 849,000 -36% 42 Animal Planet

516,000 562,000 -8% 43 Travel Channel 515,000 491,000 +5% 44 Paramount Network 507,000 567,000 -11% 45 National Geographic

504,000 452,000 +12% 46 Nick Jr.

471,000 640,000 -26% 47 OWN 465,000 539,000 -14% 48 WE TV 449,000 469,000 -4% 49 NBC Sports Network 430,000 332,000 +30% 50 BET 423,000 477,000 -11% 51 GSN 417,000 376,000 +11% 52 E! Entertainment 409,000 467,000 -12% 53 Comedy Central 392,000 416,000 -6% 54 LMN 363,000 454,000 -20% 55 Fox Sports 1 360,000 462,000 -22% 56 WGN America 352,000 372,000 -5% 57 Oxygen 343,000 297,000 +15% 58 Grit 339,000 345,000 -2% 59 FXX

331,000 356,000 -7% 60 ESPN 2 323,000 333,000 -3% 61 Science Channel

320,000 300,000 +7% 62 Nat Geo Wild

307,000 268,000 +15% tie Tru TV 307,000 388,000 -21% 64 CNBC 297,000 323,000 -8% 65 CMT 290,000 307,000 -6% 66 NFL Network 287,000 322,000 -11% tie HLN 285,000 300,000 -5% 68 Bounce TV

278,000 298,000 -7% tie Estrella TV

278,000 241,000 +15% 70 DIY 268,000 271,000 -1% 71 BBC America 265,000 280,000 -5% tie Motor Trend 265,000 260,000 +2% 73 Sundance TV 238,000 236,000 +1% 74 Laff 234,000 169,000 +38% 75 IFC 205,000 188,000 +9% 76 Weather Channel 198,000 248,000 -20% 77 Escape 177,000 174,000 +2% 78 Univision Deportes 173,000 185,000 -6% 79 Cozi TV 171,000 183,000 -7% 80 Reelzchannel 167,000 180,000 -7% 81 Heroes and Icons 165,000 n/a n/a 82 Disney XD 158,000 205,000 -23% 83 Pop 157,000 175,000 -10% 84 Nicktoons 152,000 209,000 -27% 85 TV One 150,000 170,000 -12% 86 MLB Network 149,000 162,000 -8% 87 Galavision 141,000 169,000 -17% 88 Cooking Channel 137,000 139,000 -17 89 FX Movie Channel 136,000 130,000 +5% 90 American Heroes Channel 132,000 168,000 -21% 91 Golf Channel 127,000 129,000 -2% 92 FYI 121,000 152,000 -20% 93 Teennick

119,000 145,000 -18% 94 RFD-TV 114,000 129,000 -12% 95 Destination America

111,000 179,000 -38% tie UP 111,000 127,000 -13% 97 Boomerang 108,000 139,000 -22% tie Smithsonian

108,000 97,000 +11% 99 GAC 104,000 104,000 0% 100 Fox Business Network 103,000 107,000 -4% 101 NBA TV

99,000 110,000 -10% 102 Viceland 94,000 104,000 -10% 103 MTV 2 92,000 119,000 -23% 104 Discovery En Español 87,000 89,000 -2% 105 Azteca America 86,000 98,000 -12% 106 Comet 82,000 n/a n/a 107 Ovation Network

81,000 83,000 -2% 108 ESPNU

80,000 87,000 -8% 109 Discovery Family Channel 62,000 118,000 -46% 110 Discovery Life Channel 62,000 77,000 -19% 111 Logo 61,000 65,000 -6% 112 Universo 56,000 58,000 -3% 113 Fox Deportes 55,000 53,000 +4% 114 BET Her 51,000 55,000 -7% tie Tennis Network 51,000 47,000 +9% 116 Baby First TV 49,000 55,000 -9% tie El Rey 49,000 54,000 -9% 118 Fuse 43,000 49,000 -12% 119 ESPN Deportes 42,000 42,000 0% 120 ESPNEWS 39,000 n/a n/a 121 Cine Latino 37,000 34,000 +9% tie Fox Sports 2 37,000 38,000 -3% 123 Universal Kids 32,000 118,000 -73 124 Discovery Familia 28,000 29,000 -3% 125 CNN En Español 23,000 n/a n/a 126 BEIN Sport Español 17,000 30,000 -43% 127 Justice Central 14,000 20,000 -30% 128 MTV Classic 10,000 16,000 -38% 129 BEIN Sport 7,000 14,000 -50% 130 Comedy TV 1,000 2,000 -50%

Source: Nielsen, NPM (01/01/2018-12/02/2018 vs. 12/26/2016-12/03/2017) Mon-Sat 8pm-11pm/Sun 7pm-11pm, ad-supported networks, Live+7. Ranked by 2018 Year-To-Date.

THE 50 MOST WATCHED NETWORKS OF 2018 (AMONG ADULTS 18-49)



NETWORK 2018 VIEWERS 2017 VIEWERS % CHANGE 1 NBC 2,362,000 2,253,000 +5% 2 ABC 1,650,000 1,821,000 -9% 3 Fox 1,642,000 1,873,000 -12% 4 CBS 1,564,000 1,838,000 -15% 5 ESPN 736,000 793,000 -7% 6 Univision 611,000 738,000 -17% 7 USA 604,000 681,000 -11% 8 TBS

598,000 677,000 -12% 9 Telemundo 596,000 700,000 -15% 10 The CW

593,000 689,000 -14% 11 TNT 584,000 580,000 +1% 12 Adult Swim

503,000 554,000 -9% 13 MTV 458,000 392,000 +17% 14 Discovery 439,000 519,000 -15% 15 Bravo 433,000 468,000 -7% 16 FX 427,000 496,000 -14% 17 A&E 406,000 400,000 +1% 18 VH1 395,000 406,000 -3% 19 Ion 384,000 363,000 +6% 20 AMC 383,000 501,000 -24% tie HGTV 383,000 426,000 -10% tie TLC 383,000 356,000 +8% 23 Food Network 380,000 390,000 -3% 24 History 352,000 408,000 -14% 25 Investigation Discovery 334,000 350,000 -5% 26 Fox News 296,000 319,000 -7% 27 Freeform

294,000 372,000 -21% 28 Nick at Nite

282,000 328,000 -14% 29 Nickelodeon 259,000 328,000 +4% 30 CNN 255,000 289,000 -12% 31 MSNBC

253,000 261,000 -3% 32 Comedy Central 252,000 272,000 -7% 33 Hallmark Channel 250,000 261,000 -4% 34 Lifetime 249,000 334,000 -25% 35 Unimas

248,000 324,000 -23% 36 Paramount Network

232,000 265,000 -12% 37 Syfy

228,000 257,000 -11% 38 E! Entertainment

217,000 250,000 -13% 39 BET 197,000 232,000 -15% 40 Cartoon Network

188,000 283,000 -34% 41 Travel Channel 187,000 181,000 +3% 42 FXX

179,000 201,000 -11% 43 Tru TV

175,000 226,000 -23% 44 Disney Junior 168,000 168,000 0% 45 WE TV 159,000 158,000 +1% 46 NBC Sports Network 154,000 128,000 +20% 47 Animal Planet 149,000 165,000 -10% 48 TV Land 144,000 160,000 -10% 49 National Geographic 133,000 126,000 +6% tie OWN 133,000 171,000 -22%

Source: Nielsen, NPM (01/01/2018-12/02/2018 vs. 12/26/2016-12/03/2017) Mon-Sat 8pm-11pm/Sun 7pm-11pm, ad-supported networks, Live+7. Ranked by 2018 Year-To-Date.

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