NBC rescued “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” last spring after Fox canceled the comedy, which had a same-day TV audience of fewer than 2 million viewers. The figure is puny, even by current network standards.

NBC’s motive was partly selfish: The network’s studio arm produces the show, so it profits anytime someone watches, whether it’s on Hulu or overseas.

"Brooklyn" isn’t doing much better since switching networks. But that’s just on TV. The show is averaging more than 3 million viewers online, NBC says, citing comparable viewing data shared exclusively with USA TODAY. And when coupled with DVR and on-demand cable viewing over a 35-day period, the show’s cumulative audience is a healthy 7.4 million, explaining why the show got an early renewal for a seventh season.

As viewership splinters and traditional broadcast networks are no longer as dominant a force in TV, they compete not just with dozens of cable networks and streaming services but also their own programming, viewed online whenever, say, a “Superstore” fan decides to catch up with the comedy.

Among adults ages 18 to 49, the "Superstore" audience for an average episode over a 35-day span is nearly as large as that of "The Voice." But 44% of that age group's "Superstore" viewership is online (and 55% for “Brooklyn”), compared to just 18% for the singing competition.

At first, online viewing was merely a way for networks to get viewers to check out their shows: They made little or no money from ads; instead, the goal was simply to help fans discover a new favorite and then lure them back to the network to watch new episodes.

Now, advances in ad technology and measurement have led advertisers to embrace digital. That's allowed programmers to profit from online viewing just as easily, removing “the impulse built into broadcast television to look at the overnight ratings numbers at 4:30 in the morning,” says a relieved Paul Telegdy, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. Though the digital ad business was an “unpersuasive” market five years ago, times have changed. “If we can turn it into cash, it doesn’t matter how they watch content.”

The new math is affecting how and whether shows get renewed for new seasons – or canceled, despite fan campaigns like USA TODAY's Save Our Shows. TV viewing is now “just the starting point,” says Jeff Bader, NBC Entertainment's president of program planning, strategy and research, although the vast majority of streaming viewing is still done on a big-screen TV.

“We’re getting more and more granular about how people are watching (and) what devices they’re using,” Bader says. For instance, the median age of the “Superstore” viewer on live TV is 56, but online, the number plunges to 32.

“The difference now is the report card isn’t as public as it used to be,” Bader says. When Nielsen ratings were the only currency, “everyone knew the performance of every show.” Now, each network keeps track of its own online audience. (Nielsen measures most digital viewing, but unlike TV viewing, the data is not often shared publicly at the request of the networks or advertisers who pay for it.)

Another example of the slicing and dicing: “This Is Us,” the network’s top entertainment series, claimed just 6.4 million live viewers through March 15 this season. But DVR-delayed viewing added 8.6 million; video on demand playback, mostly through cable systems, boosted the total by another 1.4 million. And digital viewing averaged 4.2 million more, for a total of 20.6 million. So 20% of its total audience is online, compared with just 8% for "Chicago PD" and just 4% for "The Blacklist."