In the heyday of DVRs — way back in the olden times, the early and mid-2010s — it was common for some shows at the top of the charts to add 5 million viewers or more to their initial totals over the course of a week via people’s TiVos or cable-box DVRs.
That … is no longer the case. TiVo stopped selling set-top boxes in October, and in the 2024-25 season, only a handful of network series added as many as 2 million viewers via DVR playback in seven days. Cable and satellite systems and other multi-channel providers like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV still let users record and shows to watch later, but as with most things related to linear TV, it’s a declining part of the ecosystem.
However (and maybe read that as if it has an exclamation point after it), that doesn’t mean people have just stopped watching shows after they air. People’s viewing habits have just shifted more to streaming, as chronicled many, many times here.
The latest set of seven-day, multiplatform network ratings from Nielsen show that delayed viewing is far from dead. In fact, the top 19 entertainment series on broadcast networks this season add an average of about 3.85 million viewers after their first airings through streaming and DVRs. Detailed linear vs. streaming breakdowns for the table below weren’t available, but previous data suggests streaming accounts for about half of that total. (CBS’ 60 Minutes also ranks among the top 20 non-sports shows, but as a news program the overwhelming majority of its audience watches when it’s on air.)
Four shows in the top 20 — ABC’s High Potential and 911: Nashville and CBS’ Matlock and Elsbeth — more than double their first-night audiences over a week. Aside from 60 Minutes, every other show in the top 20 grows by at least 42 percent, with most well above 60 percent.
What’s always been true in the 20-odd years Nielsen has tracked delayed viewing is that it’s largely a rich-get-richer scenario. All shows grow with streaming and DVR playback, but the series at the top of the seven-day rankings usually start off in fairly good shape as well. In other words, if Tracker’s same-day viewership were 3 million instead of more than 8 million, it’s unlikely 6 million more viewers would be watching it in the week after.
The same-day to seven-day multiplatform changes for the top 20 non-sports broadcast shows (as of Nov. 9) are below.
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