The 2025-2026 TV season officially ended more than a month ago, and there’s excitement for the back half of the 2026 TV schedule to deliver returning fall favorites, new Netflix shows and more. But first, praise and attention must be given to all the biggest shows from the past year that drew the largest crowds across broadcast, cable and streaming. Unsurprisingly, mega-producer Taylor Sheridan is all over that list, with three shows sitting very comfortably in the Top 10. Just not in the very top spots.
Nielsen has unveiled its latest comprehensive stats on 2025-2026 TV (via Variety), and as it usually goes, sports programming accounts for the biggest viewing audiences, with Super Bowl LX garnering the most massive viewership. But when we factor out sports and other live events, and focus squarely on scripted creations and docuseries, that’s when Sheridan and other small-screen favorites can rise up.
Landman And Both Yellowstone Spinoffs Are In The Top 10
Both seasons of Billy Bob Thornton's Landman broke viewership records for Paramount+, and both of those were then topped by Dutton Ranch's series premiere ratings. So it's only logical that both of those shows are represented in Nielsen's rundown in the #4 and #5 spots, respectively.
Over on CBS, Marshals took Luke Grimes' Kayce Dutton and the Yellowstone-verse into more serialized storytelling, and did not suffer any dramatic viewership drops because of it. In fact, it cam in just behind Dutton Ranch at #6, with a difference of only around 100,000 viewers. I would love to know how much overlap there is between those two audience groups.
If the two shows manage to pull off a crossover episode that brings Beth and Kayce together again, I bet that ends up being the most-watched episode of any Sheridan-produced series that year. Unless of course both shows are watched by the same number of people, in which case the stats would probably look pretty similar.
Also worth noting: The Madison, which isn't a Yellowstone spinoff even if it originally was conceived as such, is tied in the #19 slot with Ghosts and Will Trent.
Netflix Is Still The King, Though
Though Taylor Sheridan's dramas can obviously draw big crowds, it would have been pretty miraculous had any of them managed to take down the biggest TV hit of the streaming era, Stranger Things. Naturally, the split-up fifth and final season took over the highest spot on the Top 10, without the need for multiple platforms to enter the mix.
Below Hawkins' finest, Netflix also boasts the #2 spot with the first season of Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson's His & Hers , as well as the #3 slot with the 50 Cent-produced unscripted series Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which banked several Emmy nominations for the rapper.
Across the full Top 25, Netflix also ranked for Monster: The Ed Gein Story, The Beast In Me, The Boroughs, and The Lincoln Lawyer. The last two of those were canceled this year, and those seems like even wilder decisions now that the numbers are in.
Here's a full look at the Top 10, culled from the full list of 25 shows.
Rank | Show | Total 35-Day Multi-Platform Viewers |
|---|---|---|
1 | Stranger Things (Netflix) | 32.9 million |
2 | His & Hers (Netflix) | 25.6 million |
3 | Sean Combs: The Reckoning (Netflix) | 20.6 million |
4 | Landman (Paramount+) | 19.8 million |
5 | Marshals (CBS / Paramount+) | 19.3 million |
6 | Dutton Ranch (Paramount+ / Paramount Network) | 19.2 million |
7 | Bridgerton (Netflix) | 18.3 million |
8 | Tracker (CBS / Paramount+) | 16.3 million |
9 | High Potential (ABC / Hulu / Disney+) | 16 million |
10 | The Pitt (HBO Max) | 13.8 million |
Beyond Marshals and Tracker, CBS / Paramount + also populated the Top 25 with Matlock, Sheriff Country, Ghosts, NCIS, and Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage. Not too shabby, although I can't be the only one shocked to not see Boston Blue in the lineup.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't celebrate the hell out of High Potential's second season being watched by enough people to secure its Top 10 placement. Let's make all the Kaitlin Olson shows the most-watched shows on TV.
Next up for Taylor Sheridan is the third season of Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman's Lioness set to stream via Paramount+ subscription, so expect to see that one showing up in the Top 10 next year.
