Top 10 TV telecasts of 2021 by total viewers according to Variety:
1) Super Bowl LV: Tampa Bay vs. Kansas City (CBS) – 93M
2) AFC Championship: Kansas City vs. Buffalo (CBS) – 43M
3) NFL Divisional Playoff: Tampa Bay vs. New Orleans (Fox) – 37M
4) NFL Sunday Night Football: Tampa Bay vs. New England (NBC) – 27M
5) AFC Divisional Playoff: Buffalo vs. Baltimore (NBC) – 27M
6) AFC Wildcard Playoff: Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh (NBC) – 25M
7) NFL Thursday Special: Tampa Bay vs. Dallas (NBC) – 25M
8) The Equalizer (Post-Super Bowl Series Premiere) (CBS) – 24M
9) Oprah With Meghan & Harry (CBS) – 22M
10) NFC Wildcard Playoff: Tampa Bay vs. Washington (NBC) – 22M
Share of top 100 TV telecasts of 2021 by network:
1) CBS – 39%
2) NBC – 35%
3) Fox – 13%
4) ESPN – 10%
5) Paramount Network – 2%
6) ABC – 1%
Share of top 100 TV telecasts of 2021 by program type:
1) National Football League – 38%
2) NCIS (CBS) – 17%
3) Summer Olympics – 14%
4) FBI (CBS) – 7%
5) 60 Minutes (CBS) – 5%
6) The Equalizer (CBS) – 4%
7) Major League Baseball – 3%
8) NCAA Football – 3%
9) Adele/Oprah specials (CBS) – 2%
10) Law & Order (NBC) – 2%
11) NCAA Basketball – 2%
12) Yellowstone (Paramount Network) – 2%
13) NBA Basketball – 1%
Wow: The Price is Right led all non-NFL programs with 8.6B minutes of viewing during 2021. To put into perspective, Squid Games generated 10.5B minutes of viewing.
Video: How Do TV Ratings Work?
