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‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Marshals’ Top Final 2025-2026 TV Season Multiplatform Ratings (EXCLUSIVE)
Nielsen's final multiplatform ratings for the 2025-2026 television season confirm Netflix's commanding position in the streaming era. 'Stranger Things' claimed the top spot among non-sports programming with 32.9 million viewers across a 35-day measurement window, with the platform's 'His & Hers' and 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning' also placing in the top five. Paramount+ and traditional broadcast networks competed in the upper rankings, indicating television's continued fragmentation across multiple distribution platforms.
Traditional broadcast networks retained measurable audiences despite streaming's expansion. CBS performed strongest among broadcast-only shows, dominating the broadcast rankings with multiple entries including 'Marshals,' 'Tracker,' and 'Matlock.' Content creator Taylor Sheridan's portfolio spanned three top-ten positions across different platforms and networks, illustrating how individual producers can aggregate substantial viewership through diversified deals. The season's ratings reflect television's evolution from a single-platform medium into an ecosystem where streaming, traditional broadcast, and premium cable services coexist in audience competition.
In short
- Netflix's 'Stranger Things' led the 2025-26 TV season with 32.9 million viewers in multiplatform 35-day ratings; three Netflix shows occupied the top five positions
- CBS emerged as the strongest traditional broadcaster with four shows in the top five broadcast-only rankings, while Paramount+ and cable services demonstrated competitive strength
- Creator Taylor Sheridan's multiple series collectively ranked in the top ten, reflecting concentration of viewer attention among prestige content creators
Explained simply
Nielsen ratings measure television viewing across different networks and services to determine which programmes attract the largest audiences. These measurements are crucial to the television industry because they determine advertising revenue and influence which programmes are renewed or cancelled.
Television has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade. Audiences once primarily watched scheduled programmes on a small number of broadcast networks, with viewing concentrated on these major channels. Today, viewers can choose from streaming services like Netflix, traditional broadcasters, cable television, and numerous other platforms, creating a fragmented market where audiences are spread across many different options.
Understanding this shift in television's landscape is essential to making sense of industry ratings and data. A programme might draw substantial audiences on a streaming service whilst remaining relatively unknown on traditional broadcast television, or vice versa. Where television once revolved around a few major broadcast networks competing for the same audience, it now comprises multiple competing platforms seeking viewer time.
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