Most Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2015’s Winners and Losers

Michael Schneider December 28, 2015, 9:30 am

Viewership erosion isn’t just for the broadcast networks anymore.

In 2015, it was some of ad-supported cable’s biggest networks that suffered some of the steepest year-to-year percentage drops. USA, TNT, History, FX, Nick at Nite, A&E, ABC Family, TLC, Bravo and MTV are just some of the key networks with big double-digit declines.

It was a particularly rough year for Viacom, as its key cable networks saw major drops, including Nick at Nite (down 24%), MTV (down 25%) and Comedy Central (down 19%). A+E Networks also saw rough declines, such as A&E (down 25%) and History (down 18%).

Bright spots were AMC, the rare scripted-focused network with an increase (5%), as well as OWN (11%). HGTV (10%) and CNN (28%) were also among the top-rated networks with strong bumps.

Overall, Fox got hit the hardest in the past year (Dec. 29, 2014 to Nov. 29, 2015, which allowed for Live+7 averages), losing nearly 800,000 viewers vs. 2014–a 13% drop.

Here’s the ranker of every ad-supported broadcast and cable network in 2015 (with the exception of certain digital networks, as well as cable networks that aren’t measured by Nielsen), according to total viewers. Below this chart, we also rank the year’s most-watched networks in the adults 18-49 and adults 18-34 demographics.

More Ratings Wrap:

TOTAL VIEWER RANK	NETWORK	2015 VIEWERS	2014 VIEWERS	% CHANGE
1	CBS	9,419,000	9,375,000	0%
2	NBC	7,757,000	8,264,000	-6%
3	ABC	6,894,000	6,838,000	1%
4	Fox	5,198,000	5,973,000	-13%
5	Univision	2,551,000	2,969,000	-14%
6	ESPN	2,022,000	2,205,000	-8%
7	TBS	1,876,000	1,886,000	-1%
8	USA	1,850,000	2,201,000	-16%
9	Disney Channel	1,784,000	1,955,000	-9%
10	Fox News Channel	1,775,000	1,750,000	1%
11	TNT	1,766,000	2,057,000	-14%
12	The CW	1,745,000	1,655,000	5%
13	Discovery Channel	1,549,000	1,410,000	10%
14	History	1,536,000	1,881,000	-18%
15	HGTV	1,498,000	1,359,000	10%
16	AMC	1,443,000	1,369,000	5%
17	Telemundo	1,441,000	1,327,000	9%
18	Adult Swim	1,307,000	1,344,000	-3%
19	FX	1,251,000	1,449,000	-14%
20	Food Network	1,129,000	1,094,000	3%
21	Lifetime	1,065,000	1,128,000	-6%
22	Nick at Nite	1,027,000	1,344,000	-24%
23	Syfy	1,006,000	1,148,000	-12%
24	ABC Family	985,000	1,145,000	-14%
25	A&E	959,000	1,285,000	-25%
26	TLC	944,000	1,096,000	-14%
27	Investigation Discovery	891,000	816,000	9%
28	Hallmark Channel	881,000	828,000	6%
29	Bravo	872,000	998,000	-13%
30	Spike TV	790,000	911,000	-13%
31	CNN	672,000	525,000	28%
32	Animal Planet	652,000	658,000	-1%
33	Disney Junior	644,000	603,000	7%
34	VH1	642,000	707,000	-9%
35	TV Land	608,000	639,000	-5%
36	MTV	606,000	807,000	-25%
37	BET	598,000	696,000	-14%
38	MSNBC	576,000	592,000	-3%
39	Comedy Central	569,000	703,000	-19%
40	E! Entertainment	568,000	550,000	3%
41	National Geographic OWN	544,000 544,000	536,000 488,000	1% 11%
43	WE TV	523,000	485,000	8%
44	Tru TV	476,000	644,000	-26%
45	LMN	462,000	495,000	-7%
46	Nick Jr.	440,000	486,000	-9%
47	Travel Channel	438,000	460,000	-5%
48	GSN	434,000	353,000	23%
49	ESPN2	432,000	465,000	-7%
50	FXX	413,000	343,000	20%
51	Hallmark Movies & Mysteries	410,000	329,000	25%
52	Fox Sports 1	406,000	342,000	19%
53	INSP TV	389,000	280,000	39%
54	NBC Sports Network	381,000	307,000	24%
55	CNBC	375,000	270,000	39%
56	Disney XD	370,000	393,000	-6%
57	H2	348,000	392,000	-11%
58	HLN	324,000	339,000	-4%
59	Science Channel	318,000	308,000	3%
60	NFL Network	306,000	326,000	-6%
61	CMT	297,000	350,000	-15%
62	WGN America	287,000	277,000	4%
63	NatGeo Wild	266,000	246,000	8%
64	BBC America	263,000	268,000	-2%
65	Nicktoons	250,000	260,000	-4%
66	Boomerang	248,000	170,000	46%
67	Oxygen	247,000	382,000	-35%
68	Destination America The Weather Channel	228,000 228,000	228,000 223,000	0% 2%
70	DIY Network	213,000	195,000	9%
71	American Heroes Channel	211,000	228,000	-7%
72	TV One	208,000	161,000	29%
73	Velocity	205,000	174,000	18%
74	Teen Nick	198,000	250,000	-21%
75	FYI	189,000	171,000	11%
76	IFC	177,000	195,000	-9%
77	MTV2	169,000	186,000	-9%
78	Reelzchannel	168,000	163,000	3%
79	Pop TV Univision Deportes Network	165,000 165,000	171,000 113,000	-4% 46%
81	Sundance Channel	164,000	136,000	21%
82	Sprout	161,000	179,000	-10%
83	Discovery Family Channel	160,000	152,000	5%
84	Galavisión	158,000	145,000	9%
85	MLB Network	148,000	138,000	7%
86	UP	136,000	195,000	-30%
87	Golf Channel	132,000	129,000	2%
88	RFD TV	128,000	138,000	-7%
89	Cooking Channel	127,000	109,000	17%
90	Esquire Network	124,000	99,000	25%
91	FXM	116,000	135,000	-14%
92	ESPN U	113,000	117,000	-3%
93	Discovery en Español	111,000	113,000	-2%
94	NBA TV	103,000	124,000	-17%
95	Fox Business Network	95,000	44,000	116%
96	ESPN News	93,000	100,000	-7%
97	Chiller	89,000	105,000	-15%
98	Smithsonian Channel	88,000	75,000	17%
99	Discovery Life	83,000	108,000	-23%
100	Ovation	74,000	76,000	-3%
101	GAC	72,000	71,000	1%
102	Centric	70,000	76,000	-8%
103	Cloo	68,000	72,000	-6%
104	Logo	66,000	64,000	-6%
105	Fox Desportes NBC Universo	59,000 59,000	69,000 74,000	-14% -20%
107	Fuse	51,000	51,000	0%
108	Discovery Familia	49,000	25,000	96%
109	VH1 Classic	48,000	42,000	14%
110	Fox Sports 2	40,000	23,000	74%
111	El Rey	34,000	26,000	31%
112	Al Jazeera America	28,000	21,000	33%
113	BEIN Sports USA	21,000	17,000	24%
Total viewers; 12/29/14-11/30/15

In adults 18-49, NBC rounded out the 2015 calendar year as the leader in adults 18-49; NBC Research notes that this is the Peacock Network’s third calendar-year 18-49 win in the past four years.

Among the traditional broadcast networks, ABC managed to stay mostly flat — quite a feat in this day and age. The CW registered solid gains, while Telemundo (up 8%) is sneaking up on its dominant rival Univision (down 18%),

Meanwhile, AMC became a Top 5 network in the cable space this year, thanks to a remarkable run of hits: Fear the Walking Dead, Better Call Saul and Into the Badlands launched as the three biggest premieres in cable history this year, and AMC has most of the top 50 non-sports telecasts of the year.

Here are the Top 50 networks among adults 18-49 in 2015.

18-49 RANK	NETWORK	2015 VIEWERS	2014 VIEWERS	% CHANGE
1	NBC	2,682,000	2,937,000	-9%
2	ABC	2,401,000	2,392,000	0%
3	CBS	2,390,000	2,567,000	-7%
4	Fox	2,165,000	2,551,000	-15%
5	Univision	1,205,000	1,470,000	-18%
6	ESPN	874,000	963,000	-9%
7	TBS	865,000	942,000	-8%
8	The CW	830,000	810,000	2%
9	Telemundo	759,000	701,000	8%
10	AMC	743,000	675,000	10%
11	USA	734,000	917,000	-20%
12	Adult Swim	677,000	681,000	-1%
13	Discovery Channel	670,000	658,000	2%
14	TNT	656,000	747,000	-12%
15	FX	626,000	766,000	-18%
16	ABC Family	449,000	558,000	-11%
17	History	489,000	653,000	-25%
18	Bravo	488,000	558,000	-13%
19	Food Network	477,000	499,000	-4%
20	HGTV	466,000	435,000	7%
21	Lifetime	457,000	488,000	-6%
22	A&E	411,000	552,000	-26%
23	Syfy	409,000	484,000	-15%
24	Disney Channel	405,000	427,000	-5%
25	VH1	403,000	446,000	-10%
26	Spike TV	396,000	455,000	-13%
27	MTV	388,000	506,000	-23%
28	Comedy Central	379,000	473,000	-20%
29	TLC	374,000	467,000	-20%
30	Nick at Nite	341,000	406,000	-16%
31	E! Entertainment	327,000	320,000	2%
32	Investigation Discovery	301,000	285,000	6%
33	BET	293,000	330,000	-11%
34	Tru TV	239,000	298,000	-20%
35	FXX	236,000	191,000	24%
36	Animal Planet	230,000	250,000	-8%
37	Fox News Channel	225,000	205,000	10%
38	National Geographic	203,000	220,000	-8%
39	OWN	189,000	179,000	6%
40	WE TV	187,000	188,000	-1%
41	Disney Junior	185,000	170,000	9%
42	LMN TV Land	182,000 182,000	183,000 182,000	-1% 0%
44	Hallmark Channel	181,000	167,000	8%
45	CNN Travel Channel	179,000 179,000	147,000 206,000	22% -13%
47	Fox Sports 1	174,000	139,000	25%
48	ESPN2	154,000	172,000	-18%
49	NBC Sports Network	152,000	146,000	4%
50	NFL Network	147,000	157,000	-6%
18-49 viewers;12/29/14-11/30/15

Here’s another milestone in the history of TV’s so-called “end times”: No network managed to even average a million viewers in 2015 among adults 18-34. As younger demos find alternative platforms to view TV, traditional delivery continues to suffer.

Networks targeting young adults like MTV and ABC Family suffered big declines. But the trend isn’t across the board: The CW actually increased its 18-34 viewership in 2015, while demo cable leader Adult Swim kept its declines to a minimum.

18-34 RANK	NETWORK	2015 VIEWERS	2014 VIEWERS	% CHANGE
1	NBC	989,000	1,155,000	-14%
2	ABC	953,000	966,000	-1%
3	Fox	899,000	1,118,000	-20%
4	CBS	778,000	860,000	-10%
5	Univision	548,000	680,000	-10%
6	Adult Swim	445,000	464,000	-4%
7	ESPN	416,000	468,000	-11%
8	TBS	392,000	466,000	-16%
9	The CW	371,000	363,000	2%
10	USA	355,000	464,000	-23%
11	Telemundo	353,000	330,000	7%
12	AMC	343,000	334,000	3%
13	FX	302,000	393,000	-23%
14	ABC Family	294,000	341,000	-14%
15	TNT	283,000	328,000	-14%
16	MTV	276,000	364,000	-24%
17	Discovery Channel	253,000	248,000	2%
18	Comedy Central	250,000	325,000	-23%
19	VH1	238,000	272,000	-13%
20	Disney Channel	220,000	237,000	-7%
21	Food Network	214,000	209,000	2%
22	Lifetime	211,000	226,000	-7%
23	Nick at Nite	208,000	259,000	-20%
24	Bravo	202,000	255,000	-21%
25	E! Entertainment	190,000	194,000	-2%
18-34 viewers; 12/29/14-11/30/15

Tanner Frick on 'The Voice,' Hannah Goebel, and Cody Ray Raymond

All ‘The Voice’ Singers Who Quit and Why

‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player has Kitchen Nightmare as Jackpot Goes up in Flames

Paul Teal Dies: ‘One Tree Hill’ Actor Was 35

Fox Shakes Up Post-Super Bowl Slot: ‘The Floor’ Replaces ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’

Rob Lowe, Jim Parrack, Brian Michael Smith, Natacha Karam, and Julian Works — '9-1-1: Lone Star' Season 5 Episode 4

Find Out When the ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Series Finale Will Air

Most Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2015’s Winners and Losers

Benefits to Registering & Following