Can You Guess ABC’s Biggest Hits?
Broadcast television isn’t dead. It’s just dying.
The Walt Disney Company knows this, and it places your favorite company in an awkward position.
Walt Disney Company
Disney cannot afford to abandon linear television just yet, but the tide has definitely turned.
ABC and Disney’s cable channels like ESPN and Freeform once anchored the company’s revenue stream.
Walt Disney Company
Nowadays, these businesses ostensibly play second fiddle to streaming…or, at least, they will one day soon.
During its most recent earnings report, Disney listed operating income of $769 million from Linear Networks as opposed to $336 million for streaming.
Photo: skillastics.com
So, even though much of the world has moved on from network television, it still matters to Disney.
Are you one of the people who still watches primetime network television? If so, can you guess ABC’s biggest hits?
What Are People Watching the Most?
Wall Street Journal
Nielsen just introduced another new metric as the acclaimed ratings company tries to maintain relevance.
It, too, is struggling with the changes in media consumption. That’s why Nielsen keeps trying to invent methods to track cross-platform popularity.
The latest attempt is the Multiplatform Viewership metric, which tallies total viewership on conventional television and streaming.
Basically, Nielsen wants to identify the programs that consumers watch the most, independent of the means of viewing.
Theoretically, whether you watch something on ABC, Hulu, or Disney+ proves irrelevant to this metric. All that matters is that you watched.
So, if you know anything about modern television, you’re acutely aware that Paramount’s network, CBS, has become the de facto last network standing.
CBS has applied a chokehold on the competition by dominating Nielsen television ratings for several years now.
Programs like Tracker and Matlock have proven quite popular, and Multiplatform Viewership bears this out.
According to Nielsen, 17.5 million people watched Tracker over the past year, while 16.1 million tried the Matlock reboot.
Those two programs – along with another we’ll discuss in a moment – are among the five most-watched titles, but they’re the top two via linear television.
Photo: Netflix
Can you guess what the actual most-watched program is? It’s not that hard.
Yes, the answer is Squid Game, which 27.1 million people watched this year. And second place goes to the relatively new program, Adolescence, which had 19 million viewers.
These numbers highlight Netflix’s dominance in media consumption.
Squarely in the middle of these other titles is Amazon’s Reacher, which claimed 18.1 million. And that brings us to Disney’s content…
I Would Have Gotten One
Photographer: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Disney claimed two of the top twenty spots on the list, which may alarm you until you learn about the odd criteria.
Nielsen doesn’t include any live sports broadcasts in this metric. In fact, the qualifiers are somewhat arcane.
Photo: Bluey.tv
Any show with four or fewer episodes doesn’t qualify, nor does anything that failed to air new episodes during the 2024-2025 television season.
The second half of that disclaimer arbitrarily rules out Bluey, which is tragic. I would have loved to see its total viewership estimate.
Photo: Ludo Studios
Anyway, Disney only claims two spots on the list, and both programs air on ABC before switching to streaming on Hulu the following day.
If you’ve read MickeyBlog much this year, you should be able to guess that one of the hits is High Potential.
HIGH POTENTIAL – Key Art. (Disney)
In fact, the new procedural ties Matlock as the second-most popular program on broadcast television with 16.1 million viewers.
As for the second show, I’ll level with you that I didn’t realize it was THAT big a hit.
High Potential. Photo: ABC
I’ve noticed Will Trent hovering around the bottom of some non-Nielsen streaming charts, and I know the show’s ratings are pretty good.
A cursory glance of Will Trent season one indicates viewership in the three million range per episode, although its seven-day total was six million.
Wikipedia
As season three ends, Will Trent has leveled up to 4.5 million viewers during the first 24 hours and about seven million for the week. So, it’s a solid hit.
Still, I’m surprised to say that Nielsen tracks 11.6 million viewers in total, suggesting plenty of casual interest/future binge-watching.
So, there you have it. ABC’s biggest hit shows, at least according to Nielsen’s new metric, are High Potential and Will Trent.
Notably, we haven’t seen either one on Nielsen’s streaming charts, though.
Disney’s Streaming Hits
That’s my semi-casual segue to Nielsen’s streaming charts for the week of April 7th through April 13th, 2025.
I would describe this as an okay week for Disney, but that requires overlooking some negatives.
Win or Lose Poster. Photo: Pixar
We never saw the Pixar series, Win or Lose, appear on the charts, which isn’t a total shock, but it is a disappointment.
Similarly, Daredevil: Born Again hasn’t appeared yet, and it’s down to its season finale by this point.
So, if the show doesn’t chart next week, well, that’s really not great for Disney/Marvel.
On the bright side, The Handmaid’s Tale exploded onto the charts with 921 million viewer minutes.
Longtime readers of this column know that anything approaching a billion minutes is a massive hit. This is a huge win for Hulu.
Here are Disney’s other streaming hits for the week:
- Grey’s Anatomy – 1.022 billion viewer minutes
- Bluey – 890 million viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 772 million viewer minutes
- The Rookie – 674 million viewer minutes
- NCIS – 643 million viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 590 million viewer minutes
- Moana 2 – 391 million viewer minutes
- Mufasa – The Lion King – 284 million viewer minutes
Photo: Ludo Studios
Most of these performances are quite strong, but I’ll renew my comments about Moana 2 and Mufasa.
No matter what Disney says publicly, everyone involved must have hoped for better performances this early in their streaming cycles.
Disney
Mufasa has maybe one more week remaining on the charts at best and may not even manage that.
As for Moana 2, it doesn’t appear to have the resonance of Moana, at least not yet. Maybe that will change over time.
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Feature Photo: Photo: simplemost.com
