The Long Tail: Network Series That Keep Viewers Tuning in Days — and Weeks — Later

Long-tail TV ratings data has trickled out here and there for several years, usually when a network (or occasionally a streamer) wanted to tout the success of individual shows. It wasn’t until the just-ended 2024-25 TV season, however, that Nielsen began releasing more comprehensive, comparative numbers for viewing over five weeks’ time.

Initially, a 35-day window seemed an incredibly long time to measure data that’s meant to help advertisers understand how many people are seeing their commercials. As the streaming era has fully taken hold, though, it turns out five weeks is not an overly long time to measure viewing. Much more so than with delayed viewing on linear devices (DVRs, primarily), streaming continues to bring in substantial numbers of viewers long after an episode first airs.

The 35-day figures for the 2024-25 season (or most of it, in the case of 35-day numbers) show that for series that originate on broadcast or cable networks, five weeks of streaming can grow a show’s audience by 40 to 50 percent — and in a few outlier cases, practically double it — from its linear total over the same time frame. Nearly as important, though, is the fact that streaming continues to be a sizable fount of new viewers even after on-air and DVR viewing essentially stops.

Nielsen began compiling its first set of live plus 35-day ratings in the 2016-17 season. Over the past nine years, linear 35-day data has consistently showed continued viewing of entertainment programming from weeks two to five — but at a much slower pace than in the first week. That continues to be the case: In 2024-25, network series (excluding live sports and news programs) drew, on average, about 90 percent of their linear viewing in the first week after an episode aired.

The majority of streaming also happens in the first week — but, in further evidence that streaming has reoriented viewing habits, a good amount of a show’s five-week streaming total happens from day eight onward. The Hollywood Reporter obtained Nielsen data for the top 20 shows in seven-day, cross-platform viewing; combining that with already available 35-day data shows just how much those shows gain from streaming at each interval.

The 20 most watched shows after seven days gain an average of 1.94 million viewers from streaming alone, vs. 2.27 million from linear delayed viewing. In the subsequent four weeks, however, streaming continues at a much higher rate, adding an average of 1.48 million viewers to just 679,000 via linear delayed viewing. Put another way, linear viewing after the first week averages 8.5 percent of the 35-day total for those 20 shows, whereas streaming from days eight through 35 comprises 43 percent of the total.

The most streamed network show, by a pretty wide margin, of 2024-25 was ABC’s first-year breakout High Potential. The procedural starring Kaitlin Olson drew 7.94 million viewers via streaming over 35 days, almost half of its all-platform total of 16.14 million. Matlock (5.5 million streaming viewers), The Rookie (4.69 million), Shifting Gears (4.51 million), 911 (4.17 million), Ghosts (4.16 million), and Will Trent (3.78 million) also got more than a third of their 35-totals from streaming. Broadcast’s most-watched series, Tracker, had the second-highest total number of streaming viewers at 5.53 million, just under 32 percent of its five-week total.

Further evidence that longer-tail streaming has a real effect on viewership comes from two series that don’t make the top 20 in seven-day viewing: After seven days, Abbott Elementary and Law & Order: SVU come in behind FBI: Most Wanted’s all-platform total of 7.33 million viewers. By day 35, however, Abbott Elementary climbs to 8.78 million and SVU to 8.68 million, moving both of them ahead of Most Wanted’s 8.43 million.

Limited samples from past seasons showed similar patterns — though usually just for one or a handful of episodes and not across all broadcasters. But the data has, at last, mostly caught up to the way people watch TV in the streaming era.

Below is a breakdown of where some of the top broadcast series got their viewers in the 2024-25 season.