TV ratings 2023-24 are in. Who won? Who lost? See the charts.
Final ratings numbers for the 2023-2024 season are in. How did the reality shows we cover here fare? It’s a mixed bag. The vast majority of shows on the five English-language broadcasters brought in smaller on-air audiences than they did the season before. This is a trend that has been going on for decades, but accelerated by competition from other media such as streaming, Youtube, TikTok, etc.
The Voice was the most watched non-sports competition reality series overall and Survivor came in THIRD only behind football in the 18-49 demo. After more than two decades, the show, which drops contestants on a remote island to battle for a 1 million dollar prize, keeps chugging along.
While American Idol beat both The Voice and The Masked Singer in the 18-49 demo, The Voice garnered more viewers overall. Dancing with The Stars, however beat Idol, Voice an Masked Singer in the demo. The bad news: The talent shows’ ratings dropped precipitously vs. the 2022-2023 season.
Also, The Bachelor and The Golden Bachelor came in at 8 and 9 for on the 18-49 rankings with an average of 0.82 and and 0.80 demo share. Big Brother Thursday results show was 12 with a 0.79 demo share.
All numbers come from The Hollywood Reporter (Click for the full 2023-24 report)
Broadcast Total Viewer Rankings, 2023-24 (Top 30 including Sports)
| Rank | Show | Network | Viewers (M) | Gains/Loss vs 22=23 (M) | % gain/loss |
| 19 | The Voice – Monday | NBC | 7.06 | -0.22 | -3 |
| 21 | The Voice – Tuesday | NBC | 6.77 | -0.47 | -6.5 |
| 25 | Survivor | CBA | 6.46 | -0.22 | -3.3 |
*American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, The Masked Singer, Amazing Race, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent, did not rank in the Top 30 viewer rankings
Broadcast 18-49 Rankings, 2023-24
Note that Survivor GAINED demo viewers compared to last season. The Voice, American Idol – Monday, So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Got Talent did not rank in the Top 30 18-49 demo.
| Rank | Show | Network | 18-49 rating | Gains/Loss vs 22=23 (M) | % gain/loss |
| 3 | Survivor | CBS | 1.06 | 0.02 | 1.9 |
| 17 | Dancing with the Stars | ABC | 0.72 | N/A | |
| 23 | The Amazing Race | CBS | 0.68 | -0.04 | -5.6 |
| 24 | American Idol – Sunday | ABC | 0.66 | -0.26 | -28.3 |
| 27 | The Masked Singer | FOX | 0.63 | -0.29 | -28.3 |
Only Survivor gained viewers, the talent shows dropped precipitously
Here’s the BAD news. For the 2022-2024 season, American Idol – Sunday ranked 20 in total viewers with an average of 6.92M. It only lost 12% vs the previous season. In the 18-49 demo, American Idol -Sunday ranked 10 with an average 0.92 rating and a -8% loss from the year before. The Masked Singer was TIED with American Idol – Sunday in the demo. losing -23% from the previous year. The Voice – Monday managed to rank with an 0.80 average, loosing -20% from the season before. (Dancing with the Stars only streamed that season).
In short, the talent shows took a pretty big nose dive. Conventional wisdom would indicate the shows, not bogged down by the strikes, would have fared better. But then, by the time American Idol premiered in the winter, the strikes were over.
Consider that Survivor came in third in the demo last season as well, but lost -20% of its audience from the season before. (Click for 2022-2023 final ratings)
The less said about So You Think You Can Dance season 18 ratings the better. The 18-49 demo ratings averaged between 0.1 and 0.2. Only the premiere garnered more than 1 million viewers. The series aired 10 episode midseason.
Will talent shows cut to the bone as Broadcast viewing dwindles? Are we nearing the end of the talent show era as we’ve known it over the past 20 years?
