Entertainment

CBS Premiere Week Averages 8.63 Million Viewers, Up 14% on Last Year

Putri ArdhanaPublished 8m ago2 min readBased on 5 sources
CBS Premiere Week Averages 8.63 Million Viewers, Up 14% on Last Year
Photo by McCann-Erickson advertising agency for the Columbia Broadcasting System. / Public domain

CBS's fall premiere week, the week of October 4, averaged 8.63 million viewers, according to Variety. That is up 14% from the premiere week in 2025, which fell in the week of October 12.

The numbers use Nielsen's "live plus seven" multiplatform measure. That counts people who watched an episode live or within seven days of its air date, on a TV set or on a streaming service. It is the broadest common yardstick for how many people actually saw a show.

Marshals was the No. 1 entertainment show of the week, with 15.14 million viewers across TV and streaming. Tracker followed with an average of 13.86 million. The two were also the most-watched CBS shows in streaming alone.

Several returning shows grew by double digits. Sheriff Country's second season hit a series high of 10.518 million viewers, up 27% from its series premiere a year earlier. The NCIS season 24 premiere drew 10.59 million, up 23% from last year's premiere. NCIS: New York averaged 10.52 million, up 58% on the time slot premiere of NCIS: Origins, its predecessor, a year ago. FBI averaged 8.93 million, up 18% year to year.

The new drama Cupertino also got a look. It averaged 7.17 million viewers over the seven-day window. Counted only for the night it aired, the figure was 3.19 million.

Excluding sports, seven of the week's top 10 series were CBS shows: Marshals, Tracker, 60 Minutes, NCIS, Sheriff Country, NCIS: New York and FBI. Looking only at broadcast viewing, without streaming, CBS had eight of the top 10 shows. Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage was among them.

For context, the network had a long run at the top of the ratings. Before last season, CBS had won the year in total viewers every season since 2008-09. In May, The Hollywood Reporter reported that NBC had taken the 2025-26 season in total viewers, its first win since 2002. CBS finished second that season with 4.63 million viewers, down 19%, ahead of ABC's 4.33 million.

What the premiere week means for the season is still a question for the weeks ahead. For now, the figures show a network whose returning dramas and comedies are drawing audiences of several million a night across TV and streaming.

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