The Top 100 TV Shows of the 2023-2024 TV Season

The 2023-2024 TV season has, for the most part, come to an end, with nearly all of the major networks (except for “the” CW) airing the season and/or series finales of their primetime line-up, all of which were, of course, delayed due to the extended strikes last year by both the Writers Guild and the Actors Guild.

That being said, the folks over at Variety recently published the Top 100 Shows of 2023-2024, and I wanted to share with our readers highlights from that list.

While I typically focus mainly on dramas, the Top 100 list, obviously, covers the gamut of programming – drama, sports, news, reality and comedy – so I’ll be fair and do the same (this time).

First of all, the top 10 series for the 2023-2024 TV season are as follows:

1. NFL Sunday Night Football (NBC) – 19.8 million viewers
2. NFL Monday Night Football (ABC) – 11.986 million viewers
3. NFL Thursday Night Football (Amazon Prime) – 11.973 million viewers
4. Tracker (CBS) – 10.7 million viewers
5. NCIS (CBS) – 9.6 million viewers
6. Young Sheldon (CBS) – 9.1 million viewers
7. FBI (CBS) – 8.9 million viewers
8. Chicago Fire (NBC) – 8.7 million viewers
9. Blue Bloods (CBS) 8.4 million viewers
10. 60 Minutes (CBS) – 8.2 million viewers

It’s no great surprise that CBS has the most programs in the top 10 because, once again, CBS is the most watched network, despite facing a 5% decline in viewers. I’ll have more details further down about the rankings of the networks themselves.

It should be noted a few cable networks cracked the Top 100, but for the most part all of the programs on the list aired on the major networks of ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Not one single program on CW (formerly The CW) made it into the Top 100.

Let’s take a look at the top programs on those four networks, shall we? I’m going to focus on the top 3 dramas, reality shows and comedies for each network.

Taking it in alphabetical order, let’s look at ABC first:

The top 3 dramas are as follows: 9-1-1 – 6.8 million viewers; Will Trent – 6.7 million viewers and The Rookie – 5.9 million viewers. The top 3 reality shows are as follows: The Golden Bachelor – 5.9 million viewers; Dancing With the Stars – 5.889 million viewers and American Idol – 5.829 million viewers. And, the top 3 comedies are as follows: The Conners – 4.2 million viewers; Abbott Elementary – 4 million viewers and the recently canceled Not Dead Yet – 3.2 million viewers.

You’ve already seen the top dramas for CBS (see Top 10 list above), but here are the top 3 reality shows: Survivor – 6.4 million viewers, The Amazing Race – 4.5 million viewers and Big Brother – 3.8 million viewers. As for the top 3 comedies, those are: the aforementioned Young Sheldon – 9.1 million viewers, Ghosts – 8.2 million viewers and The Neighborhood – 5.6 million viewers.

Next up is FOX, which has only one drama in the Top 100, which is Alert: Missing Persons Unit – 2.5 million viewers. As for their top 3 reality shows: The Masked Singer – 4.4 million viewers; The Floor – 3.5 million viewers and Next Level Chef – 3.2 million viewers. There are no FOX comedies – or more to the point, animation series – in the Top 100.

Lastly, here are the top 3 dramas on NBC: the previously mentioned #8 series Chicago Fire – 8.7 million viewers; Chicago Med – 8.2 million viewers and Chicago P.D. – 7.9 million viewers. As for reality shows, the top 3 are: The Voice (Monday Nights) – 7.1 million viewers; The Voice (Tuesday Nights) – 6.8 million viewers and AGT Fantasy League – 4.5 million viewers. NBC only had two comedies in the Top 100, and they are: the reboot of Night Court – 3.8 million viewers and the recently canceled Extended Family – 3.3 million viewers.

Lastly, I mentioned that I would have details on how the networks themselves performed with CBS holding onto its title of most-watched network with 5.5 million viewers, a drop of 5%. NBC comes in second with 4.7 million viewers, down 8% from last year; ABC in third with 4.2 million, being the only major network to see growth albeit only 4% and FOX coming in fourth with 3.1 million viewers, dropping a whopping 30% from last year.

What is interesting to note, the Hallmark Channel narrowly missed the top 10 with 967,000 viewers; the USA Network was in 18th place with 635,000 viewers while CNN was in 22nd place with 595,000 viewers. “The” CW was in 27th place – the list only included the Top 30 networks, I might add – with 457,000 viewers, down 16% from last year.

Make sure to check out the link provided at the start of this article for the full chart of the Top 100 TV shows of the 2023-2024 TV season as well as the Top 30 Networks for this past season to see how your favorite programs and networks performed.