The broadcast bounce is real. As 2024 ends, CBS led the pack in total viewers for the year thanks, of course, to Super Bowl Lviii. No surprise, live sports continues to work its magic for the traditional networks, as NBC was also up year vs. year and even took the adults 18-49 crown for 2024 — bolstered by the tremendously successful Paris Olympics. ABC, meanwhile, was virtually flat from 2023, which these days is a big win — and presumably the Alphabet web was helped by airing more NFL Monday Night Football games this fall.

Among the Big 4, only Fox was down by double digits — and that can be explained by the fact that it ran the Super Bowl in 2023, so of course it’s going to be down. In cable, unless you were a news network in a major presidential election year, well, it was another year of dramatic declines.

Tomorrow, Variety will share...