‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest’ Lands ABC No. 1 Telecast During Holiday Week | Chart
Nothing marks a new year quite like the annual Times Square ball drops. This year was no exception, as partygoers gathered live in New York City and families and friends huddled in their living rooms across the country to toast 2024. The televised tradition topped the most-watched telecasts in all of broadcast, according to the Samba TV Weekly Wrap Report for the week of Dec. 25 to Dec. 31.
Dick Clark’s show on ABC has reigned as the top-rated New Year’s Eve special for over 30 years. This year’s rendition, “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2024” carried on the tradition, edging out all other programming for the week. Live from New York’s iconic Time Square, with co-host Rita Ora, the broadcast featured a star-studded lineup of musical performances by Megan Thee Stallion, Jelly Roll, Sabrina Carpenter, Green Day and more.
Notably, Seacrest also scored a second spot among the Top 10 this week for co-hosting another holiday special, “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade,” which placed No. 6. Julianne Hough co-hosted with Mickey Guyton from Walt Disney Resort in Florida.
These days, Nashville is giving Times Square a run for its money at the New Year’s holiday. CBS’ coverage of the countdown from Tennessee took the No. 2 spot with “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash.” The broadcast included performances from some of the most famous country musicians in the world, including Lainey Wilson, Thomas Rhett, Elle King, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Old Dominion, Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton and more.
A sneak peek at FOX’s new game show “The Floor” snapped the NYE coverage streak and took the No. 3 spot. The new series, hosted by Rob Lowe, debuted on Jan. 2 and features 81 contestants competing in a trivia battle on a massive game show floor for $250,000. That was likely bolstered by the increased viewership from NFL games on FOX on Christmas Day.
Fellow TV hosts Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper emceed CNN’s original programming, “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen,” which nabbed the fourth spot for the cable news network amongst the broadcast networks. The telecast included musical performances by Enrique Iglesias, Maroon 5, Jonas Brothers, Flo Rida, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker and Rod Stewart – and even had Cooper and Cohen downing a shot of tequila after they were previously banned from drinking on air the prior year.
In fifth was this year’s Kennedy Center award winners honored in a CBS special. Queen Latifah, Barry Gibb, Renée Fleming, Billy Crystal and Dionne Warwick were presented with Kennedy Center Honors, which recognize and celebrate individuals whose contributions have shaped American life and culture through the performing arts.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s “MasterChef Junior: Home for the Holidays,” where young culinary contestants cook up seasonal favorites in search of a grand prize, scored seventh. It’s clear that big-ticket sporting events such as NFL games airing on FOX over the holidays can affect spillover viewership into other programming, capturing audiences that had already tuned into the programming.
ABC took No. 9 for its special “The Year: Countdown to 2024” hosted by Robin Roberts. She was joined by her Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, along with World News Tonight anchor David Muir, 20/20 co-anchor Deborah Roberts and Nightline co-anchor Juju Chang. The special reflected on the year’s major news events with a forward-looking focus. The network also managed to nab two telecasts of the legendary game show program “Wheel of Fortune” during the holiday week.
On the streaming charts, Amazon Prime Video landed three of its programs among the top 10, with “Reacher” nabbing another week at No. 1. Netflix’s “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire” and “Leave the World Behind” followed in second and third. Disney+’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” moved up to the No. 4 spot and “Sound of Freedom,” streaming on Prime Video, was No. 5.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the final season of “The Crown” and “My Life with the Walter Boys” all spent another week in the Top 10.
Prime Video’s “Saltburn” scored the No. 9 spot this week. The film, which hit theaters this fall, had 336,000 U.S. households tuning in over its first four days available to stream.
Finally, Netflix’s documentary “Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare” rounded out the final spot on the charts for its gruesome portrayal of institutionalized abuse of wayward teens in the forests of Utah.
Cole Strain is VP and Head of R&D at Samba TV, a WrapPRO partner. Click here for more data and analysis from Samba TV.
The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households drawn from over 25 million connected TVs, balanced to the U.S. Census.
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