Sweet 16: CBS breaks own decades-old record as the most-watched primetime network for 16 straight seasons

Beyond the Campus Walls Justin Hartley in 'Tracker' - CBS/Sergei Bachlakov (Sergei Bachlakov/CBS)

By Stephen Iervolino

May 02, 2024 at 11:26 am EDT

The Eye network is crying happy tears: CBS announced Thursday that it has been the most-watched network in primetime for the 16th straight season.

That performance set a record for any broadcast network and broke CBS' own primetime record set from 1955 to 1970.

The network also touted Nielsen "live plus 7-day" ratings through April 21 that showed CBS averaged 5.59 million primetime viewers during the 2023-24 season — by comparison, second-place NBC averaged 5.01 million; ABC's primetime averaged 4.29 million; Fox's averaged 3.35 million.

CBS is also scoring in multiplatform — that is Paramount+, CBS.com and the CBS app — with its new hit Tracker, the sunsetting Young Sheldon and ratings stalwart NCIS, averaging 12 million or more viewers watching that way.