To say it’s been a while since a network show consistently put up those kinds of numbers would be an understatement. And in the context of the current season, the show is pulling in audiences almost no other entertainment show can match — even with the benefit of delayed viewing.
The Greatest of All Time has grown its audience each night it has aired so far: 14.42 million for its debut on Jan. 7, 14.87 million the next night and 15.55 million for round three. The competition featuring Jeopardy hall of famers Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter will air at least one more time, on Tuesday; the tournament ends when one player notches three nightly wins.
Those three episodes rank second, third and fourth among all entertainment programs so far this season in viewers. Only NBC’s Golden Globes broadcast, with 18.32 million viewers, currently ranks ahead of it.
Each episode of The Greatest of All Time has also outdrawn the first four games of the 2019 NBA Finals, the first five games of the 2019 World Series, all but one of ESPN’s 17 Monday Night Football telecasts and seven of Fox’s 11 Thursday Night Football showcases.
As for entertainment programming, the Jeopardy stunt’s same-day average of 14.95 million viewers is currently running 32 percent — and more than 3.6 million viewers — ahead of the next most-watched show, CBS’ NCIS at 11.33 million. It’s also the top non-sports show in adults 18-49 with a 2.3 rating, 15 percent ahead of The Masked Singer‘s 2.0.
It has been four years since any non-sports program averaged as many same-day viewers as The Greatest of All Time is now. NCIS (16.6 million) and The Big Bang Theory (15.2 million) did so in the 2015-16 season.
Good score for CHEK.