CBS just won the television season.
Eight of the Top 25 shows. More than any other network. If this were 2005, the champagne would already be flowing in Midtown.
But the most dangerous metric in business is the one that used to matter.
This season's Nielsen rankings reveal a growing disconnect between winning the television season and winning the future of television.
Let’s break it down into 3 big questions:
1) What were the most-watched shows?
2) Which networks get the largest share of their viewership from streaming?
3) Why does moving your audience to streaming matter?
What were the most-watched shows?
Top 10 TV shows of 2025-26 by total viewers (Nielsen):
1) Stranger Things - (Netflix) - 32.9M
2) His & Hers - (Netflix) - 25.6M
3) Marshals - (CBS/Paramount+) - 20.7M
4) Sean Combs: The Reckoning - (Netflix) - 20.6M
5) Landman - (Paramount+) - 19.8M
6) Bridgerton - (Netflix) - 18.3M
7) Tracker - (CBS/Paramount+) - 16.4M
8) High Potential - (ABC/Disney) - 16.0M
9) The Pitt - (HBO Max) - 13.8M
10) Monster: The Ed Gein Story - (Netflix) - 13.4M
Share of top 25 shows for 2025-26:
1) Paramount - 40%
2) Netflix - 28%
3) Disney - 16%
4) Amazon - 8%
5) NBCUniversal - 4%
6) Warner Bros. Discovery - 4%
Which networks get the largest share of their viewership from streaming?
Here's where it gets interesting.
Nielsen's Distributor Gauge report shows the share of total TV time each media company accounts for. But the leaderboard that will define who wins the Screen Wars is the share of streaming TV time.
Share of streaming TV time (Nielsen):
1) YouTube - 28%
2) Netflix - 17%
3) Disney - 11%
4) Amazon - 8%
5) Roku - 6%
6) Paramount - 5%
7) Fox - 5%
8) NBCUniversal - 4%
9) WarnerBros. Discovery - 3%
10) Other - 14%
YouTube and Netflix hold the top two spots, accounting for 45% of all streaming TV time. Every legacy media company is fighting over the rest.
Now look at the share of each company's TV time that comes from streaming:
1) YouTube - 100%
2) Netflix - 100%
3) Amazon - 100%
4) Roku - 100%
5) Disney - 50%
6) Fox - 31%
7) Paramount - 27%
8) WarnerBros. Discovery - 23%
9) NBCUniversal - 21%
As a whole, the five media companies with the largest linear TV share lost 2% of their market share.
Bottom line: Growing your share of streaming TV time is the most important metric in the Screen Wars.
YoY streaming share change:
1) NBCUniversal - ↑ 18%
2) Fox - ↑ 7%
3) Average - ↓ 2%
4) Disney - ↓ 3%
5) Paramount - ↓ 12%
6) WarnerBros. Discovery - ↓ 14%
This is where the story gets counterintuitive.
Paramount had Landman. They had 1923. They had 40% of the top 25 most-watched shows. And their streaming share dropped 12%.
Why does moving your audience to streaming matter?
This is what the Innovator's Dilemma looks like in real time.
Legacy media companies are trapped between two realities.
The first is where their audience is going.
The second is where their profits still come from.
Linear television still generates roughly 63% more revenue per viewing hour than streaming.
Revenue per hour (MoffettNathanson):
1) Linear TV - $0.57
2) Peacock - $0.42
3) WarnerBros Discovery- $0.36
4) Streaming TV - $0.35
5) Hulu - $0.31
6) Disney+ - $0.28
7) Netflix - $0.27
Flashback: The Economics of Convergent TV in 2025
As a result, every media executive is trying to move viewers from linear to streaming without moving too many viewers from linear to streaming.
Good luck with that.
The industry's schizophrenia becomes even more obvious when you look at advertising.
Streaming offers better targeting.
Better measurement.
Better attribution.
Better data.
It's a superior product.
And yet advertisers continue to pay more for broadcast television.
Broadcast upfront CPMs are now roughly 60% higher than streaming CPMs.
Upfront CPMs (Media Dynamics):
1) Broadcast - $43.50 (↓ 4%)
2) Streaming - $27.25 (↓ 8%)
3) Total - $28.30 (↓ 6%)
4) Linear TV - $27.04 (↓ 5%)
5) Cable - $19.35 (↓ 6%)
Think about this. The ad buyers at the upfronts cut streaming ad prices by more than they did for broadcast. Heck, they even cut cable by less. This is insane!
Bottom line
The legacy media companies aren't competing against each other. They're competing against their own business models.
Netflix doesn't have this problem.
YouTube doesn't have this problem.
Amazon doesn't have this problem.
They don't have a legacy profit stream to protect.
They can fully embrace the economics of streaming because they don't have billions of dollars tied to linear television.
That's an enormous advantage.
The next phase of the Screen Wars won't be won by whoever creates the most hit shows.
It will be won by whoever is willing to abandon the old economics first.
The signal to watch is simple:
The day streaming CPMs command a premium over linear CPMs is the day legacy media companies are on the road to recovery.
Until then, we're watching an industry celebrate victories on one scoreboard while losing on another.