Key Points:
- NFL and college football games and related telecasts accounted for all top 10 broadcast and cable TV programs during the second week of October.
- Fox’s national NFL games were the highest-rated single TV event; NBC the highest-rated broadcast network in prime-time.
- Fox News was the dominant cable network with overall prime-time viewereship during the measurement period.
Nothing brings the audience to traditional broadcast and cable television quite like a football game.
Professional and college-level football games and related programming dominated the top 10 list of schedule programming during the second week of October, according to data shared by Nielsen with The Desk on Wednesday.
Fox had the highest-rated event with its national window of Week 7 National Football League (NFL) games, which are counted as a single broadcast even though viewers in different parts of the country saw different games. The national window event attracted a collective audience of 25.63 million viewers to Fox on Sunday, Nielsen said, with the network achieving an 8 share among overall viewers and a 7.4 share among the key demographic of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 years old (A25-54).
NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast between the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons was the second most-watched event of the week, attracting 17.89 million viewers to the Peacock network and scoring a 5.6 share among overall and A25-54 viewers.
Football games accounted for eight of the top 10 programs on broadcast and cable TV, with games aired by ABC, CBS, ESPN and Amazon’s Prime Video also landing in the top 10. The NFL accounted for seven of those games, with ABC’s college football broadcast between the University of Mississippi and Georgia State University listed as the only college football game.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football pre-game coverage and Fox’s “The OT” NFL wrap-up show also made the top 10 ranker, per Nielsen data.
An episode of “Tracker” on CBS was the highest-rated, non-sports event on broadcast and cable TV, pulling in 8 million viewers and achieving a 2.5 share.
NBC was the highest-rated network in prime-time on broadcast TV during the measurement period, which ran from October 12 to October 19. The network’s entertainment, news and sports programming attracted 5.63 million viewers and helped NBC achieve a 1.8 share.
ABC was the second most-watched network in prime-time with 5.2 million viewers and a 1.6 share, while CBS was in third place with 3.9 million viewers and a 1.2 share.
On cable, the Fox News Channel dominated in prime-time, with 2.3 million people tuning in to watch the network’s political analysis and commentary programs. TBS, which airs Major League Baseball (MLB) divisional games under the TNT Sports banner, attracted 1.97 million viewers and had a 0.6 share on cable, while Fox Sports 1 — which shares MLB divisional rights with TNT Sports — had 1.74 million viewers and a 0.5 share.
The data originates from Nielsen’s “Big Data + Panel” measurement product, which combines TV viewership on broadcast and cable platforms with analytics from smart TVs and streaming devices.
Top-Rated TV Programs (Broadcast/Cable)
Rank
Network
Show
P2+ Viewers
P2+ Share
1
NFL on Fox (national)
25.63 million
8.0
2
Sunday Night Football – ATL/SF
17.89 million
5.6
3
NFL on CBS (various)
17.84 million
5.5
4
Thursday Night Football – PIT/CIN
15.21 million
4.7
5
NFL on Fox (regional)
14.13 million
4.4
6
Football Night in America (kickoff)
13.06 million
4.1
7
Monday Night Football – CHI/WAS
12.87 million
4.0
8
The O.T.
11.7 million
3.6
9
Monday Night Football – BUF/ATL
9.89 million
3.1
10
College Football: U.Miss/Georgia St.
9.79 million
3.0
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel (October 13-19, 2025), viewership data is rounded
Top-Rated Broadcast TV Programs
Rank
Network
Show
P2+ Viewers
P2+ Share
1
NFL on Fox (national)
25.63 million
8.0
2
Sunday Night Football – ATL/SF
17.89 million
5.6
3
NFL on CBS (various)
17.84 million
5.5
4
NFL on Fox (regional)
14.13 million
4.4
5
Football Night in America (kickoff)
13.06 million
4.1
6
Monday Night Football – CHI/WAS
12.87 million
4.0
7
The O.T.
11.7 million
3.6
8
College Football: U.Miss/Georgia St.
9.79 million
3.0
9
Football Night in America (pt. 3)
9.33 million
2.9
10
Saturday Night College Football
8.01 million
2.5
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel (October 13-19, 2025), viewership data is rounded
Top TV Networks (Broadcast/Cable)
Rank
Network
P2+ Viewers
P2+ Share
1
5.63 million
1.8
2
5.2 million
1.6
3
3.88 million
1.2
4
2.33 million
0.7
5
2 million
0.6
6
1.97 million
0.6
7
1.74 million
0.5
8
1.05 million
0.3
9
935,000
0.3
10
828,000
0.3
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel (October 13-19, 2025), viewership data is averaged and rounded
Editor’s note: An early version of the top TV charts published by The Desk this week erroneously reported the measurement period as October 12-19, 2025. Nielsen’s measurement periods run from Monday through the following Sunday; thus, the correct date range was October 13-19, 2025.
