2023 once again confirmed that nothing beats the NFL in terms of viewership, but of the best of the rest in terms of most-watched telecasts from the year, Gordon Ramsay's Next Level Chef season 2 and the Oscars were able to make some headway amongst the gridiron games.
As it has done in recent years, Variety gathered data from Nielsen and put together the 100 most-watched TV telecasts of 2023. The first 14 were all NFL games, led of course by Super Bowl LVII between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs with 114.95 million viewers. But two non-NFL telecasts were able to crack the top 25: the Oscars, which came in at 15 with 19.41 million viewers, and Next Level Chef's season 2 premiere at 22 with 16.89 million viewers.
After those two, you have to go to the number 40 spot to find a non-sport or award show, with the 60 Minutes episode that featured an interview with Prince Harry taking that spot with 12.46 million viewers.
While Next Level Chef has definitely proven to be a hit amongst viewers for Fox, its season 2 premiere did have some help to crack the top 25. Namely, the Super Bowl's 114.9 million viewers, as the Next Level Chef episode aired immediately after the big game.
Only one scripted episode of TV made it into the top 50 most-watched telecasts of the year. The most watched episode of scripted TV in 2023 was Fire Country season 1 episode 12, which aired on January 29 and had 12.22 million viewers; though again worth noting it had the NFL's AFC Championship game as a lead-in.
Once you get beyond the top 50, there is some more variety in the most-watched shows. Among the highlights, Yellowstone season 5 episode 8, which was the last episode from part one of the final season to air and tied for 51st with 11.47 million viewers.
NCIS season 20 was the scripted show with the most top 100 watched telecasts, with 11 episodes making the list. It's highest being NCIS season 20 episode 11, at 55 and 11.25 million viewers.
In addition to Fire Country, new series Accused (59) and Night Court (94) both made the list with their series premieres.
Based on this list coming out on December 29, it's obvious that it doesn't account for the entire year. Specifically, the data covers from January 1 to December 3.
