The numbers are in, and they accentuate the role of the NFL as the dominant force on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ television despite many in the market insisting they don’t watch the league because of the Rams’ messy exit nine years ago.
Not counting the presidential debates and election-night coverage, all of which aired on more than a dozen stations, the 25 most-watched TV programs in the market for 2024 involve the National Football League — either games or pregame/postgame shows.
The Kansas City Chiefs are in 17 of those — 14 game telecasts and three programs surrounding their Super Bowl and AFC championship contest appearances (this is for 2024, not their AFC title game victory last Sunday over Buffalo.)
The most-watched non-NFL program on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ TV last year was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, on KSDK (Channel 5), coming in at No. 26. The top-ranked scripted show is “Tracker,†at No. 31, but there is a sports-related caveat to that — it aired on KMOV (Channel 4) immediately after its coverage of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory last February.
People are also reading…
The local pro teams come in far down the list.
The top-rated Cardinals game clanks it at No. 84 — and it took a special occasion to crack the top 100. It was a nationally televised game on Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) that honored the legacy of the Negro Leagues and ended up also saluting the memory of one of its biggest alumni, Willie Mays, who died a few days earlier. The contest, against the San Francisco Giants, was played at Rickwood Field, in Birmingham, Alabama, which was one of the Negro League stadiums.
That ranking far outpaces the best Blues rating of 2024, which came on the last day of the year when they played in the Winter Classic against the Blackhawks in Chicago. That telecast was on TNT and TruTV and finished in 529th place.
It was beaten by the most-watched Battlehawks contest of the year, the United Football League team’s playoff loss at home to San Antonio. That finishes at No. 399.
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™ other major pro team, City SC, had all but three of its matches exclusively streamed by Apple — which does not release viewership figures. However, the ones that were on a conventional television station drew minuscule viewership levels.
The most-watched one was seen in just 1.5% of the market, according to audience-tracking company Nielsen. That contest, against the LA Galaxy on Sept. 1 and shown on KTVI (Channel 2), didn’t make the list of the top 1,000 most-watched programs of the year in the market.
What we watched
The top-rated shows on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ television in 2024, per Nielsen. The rating is the percentage of the market watching:
| RANK | PROGRAM | DATE | CHANNEL | RATING |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Super Bowl: Kansas City-San Francisco | Feb. 11 | KMOV (4) | 46.9 |
| 2. | Super Bowl: Pregame show (5 p.m.-kickoff) | Feb. 11 | KMOV (4) | 33.3 |
| 3. | AFC title game: Kansas City-Baltimore | Jan. 28 | KMOV (4) | 32.1 |
| 4. | AFC divisional playoff: Kansas City-Buffalo | Jan. 21 | KMOV (4) | 31.8 |
| 5. | NFC title game: Detroit-San Francisco | Jan. 28 | KTVI (2) | 26.2 |
| 6. | NFC wild-card playoff: Green Bay-Dallas | Jan. 14 | KTVI (2) | 20.4 |
| 7. | NFL regular season: Kansas City-Buffalo | Nov. 17 | KMOV (4) | 20.2 |
| 8. | NFC divisional playoff: Tampa Bay-Detroit | Jan. 21 | KSDK (5) | 19.0 |
| 9. | AFC title game: Postgame show | Jan. 28 | KMOV (4) | 18.9 |
| 10. | Super Bowl: Pregame show (4:30-5 p.m.) | Feb. 11 | KMOV (4) | 18.8 |
Other notable top-rated programs
| RANK | PROGRAM | DATE | CHANNEL | RATING | NOTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26. | Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade | Nov. 28 | KSDK (5) | 13.6 | Best-rated non-sports show |
| 30. | Olympics (women's gymnastics) | July 28 | KSDK (5) | 13.0 | Best-rated Olympics night |
| 55. | News | Aug. 4 | KSDK (5) | 10.0 | Best-rated local newscast |
| 84. | Cardinals-Giants (Rickwood Field) | June 20 | KTVI (2) | 9.4 | Best-rated Cardinals game |
| 399. | Battlehawks-San Antonio | June 9 | KTVI (2) | 6.8 | Best-rated B'hawks game |
| 529. | Blues-Blackhawks (Wrigley Field) | Dec. 31 | TNT/TruTV | 6.4 | Best-rated Blues game |
| N/A | City SC-LA Galaxy | Sept. 1 | KTVI (2) | 1.5 | Best-rated City SC game |
In today’s 10 a.m. “Ten Hochman†sports video — brought to you by — Ben Hochman discusses 25 years ago today, when the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Rams won the Super Bowl! Also, a happy birthday shoutout to Christian Bale! And as always, Hochman picks a random ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Cards card!
