Top Streaming Originals and Broadcast Hits
As of mid-2025, Netflix leads global streaming with over 280 million paid memberships and a catalog that includes the drama series "The Bear," the sci-fi anthology "Black Mirror," and the reality competition "Love Is Blind." Disney+ continues to grow its subscriber base with flagship series such as "The Mandalorian" and the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows "Loki" and "Agatha All Along," which are integrated with the wider MCU timeline. Max, operated by Warner Bros. Discovery, offers the HBO drama "The White Lotus" and the reality franchise "Real Housewives," while Apple TV+ focuses on award-winning originals like the comedy "Severance" and the drama "The Morning Show." Paramount+ combines live sports, including Major League Baseball and the UEFA Champions League, with Paramount Television Studios series such as "Yellowstone" and its prequel "1923." These platforms publish quarterly earnings reports that detail subscriber growth, content spend, and global viewing hours, which are available on their investor relations pages and through financial data providers like Forbes, which regularly tracks streaming subscriber numbers and content budgets.
Broadcast television remains a major destination for live events and scripted series in the United States. NBC's Sunday night lineup continues to anchor broadcast viewing with "The Voice" and the long-running "Sunday Night Football," while CBS airs the procedural drama "Tracker" and the reality franchise "Survivor." ABC's schedule includes the mockumentary "Abbott Elementary" and the summer reality hit "The Bachelorette," and Fox counters with the animated series "The Simpsons" and the live sports broadcasts of the NFL. Nielsen's weekly Total Audience Measurement reports provide cross-platform ratings that combine traditional TV sets with streaming apps on connected devices, giving a unified view of what audiences are watching across both broadcast and streaming ecosystems.
New and Returning Series to Watch Now
The 2024-2025 television season introduced several new scripted series that have reached broad audiences. NBC's "The Voice" continues its long run as a flagship music competition, while ABC's "High Potential" stars Kaitlin Olson in a crime procedural based on the best-selling book series by Shari Lapena. CBS's "Matlock" reboot, starring Kathy Bates, updates the classic legal drama format for modern audiences, and Fox's "The Cleaning Lady" enters its third season as a procedural built around a single mother who becomes an informant for the FBI. These series are scheduled according to the network upfront presentations held each spring, where the major broadcast networks announce their fall lineups and midseason replacements.
Returning series continue to dominate weekly viewing charts, with "Stranger Things" on Netflix and "The Last of Us" on HBO Max generating significant viewership and cultural conversation. "The Last of Us," adapted from the PlayStation video game, is produced by PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures Television, and its second season is confirmed with a premiere date set for 2026, as stated by the show's creators and the production companies in official announcements. "Stranger Things" concluded its fifth and final season in late 2024, with the finale drawing tens of millions of viewers within the first week, according to Netflix's weekly top 10 data. Both series are available on their respective platforms with new episodes released on weekly schedules, and their performance is tracked by the streaming analytics firm Nielsen, which reports streaming originals rankings based on total minutes viewed.
Sports, Events, and Live Programming
Live sports remain the most-watched category of television programming in the United States, with the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL all airing on major broadcast and cable networks. The NFL's broadcast deal with Amazon Prime Video for Thursday Night Football represents a significant shift in how live sports are distributed, with the league and Amazon reporting that the package has expanded the