For the first time in more than a decade, it looks like CBS won’t be taking the broadcast crown for the 2025-26 TV season.

While the network can still lay claim to quite a few wins this season, total viewers won’t be one of them as NBC will likely come out on top when all is said and done, per Nielsen Most Current data. That’s due in large part to the network’s “legendary February” lineup that included the Milan-Cortina Olympics, Super Bowl LX and the NBA All-Star game. Primetime sports are up 82% on NBC this year, says Nielsen.

Paramount’s George Cheeks admitted as much during a press briefing with reporters on Wednesday, acknowledging: “In full transparency, while this year is undeniably strong for CBS, it’ll be the first time since ’07-’08 that CBS is not going to be number one in total viewers. ‘Legendary February’ and NBC will be the reason for that.”

“Congrats to my former colleagues at NBC,” Cheeks joked before turning his attention back to CBS.

As mentioned, despite missing out on that achievement for an 18th year, CBS is still going strong.  CBS has six of the top 20 most-watched series among all broadcast and streaming competition, Nielsen data shows. That’s led by Marshals, which has stormed onto the network with 26.5M viewers in 28 days.

Tracker is also still going strong in its third season, securing 16.4M viewers in 28 days for its midseason return. CIA, Matlock, Sheriff Country, and Ghosts are also among the top 20 shows on TV. While they barely missed the list, Survivor 50 and NCIS also drew 10M+ viewers with their first episodes of the year.

Nothing is set in stone just yet since the broadcast season runs through May, and more data will come available in the next few weeks as series begin to wind down. Last season, CBS called its total viewers win at the end of April, officially breaking broadcast’s longest winning streak on record, besting a milestone previously reached by CBS from 1955-1970.

In all, CBS has had 22 winning seasons in terms of average total primetime viewership in the last 24 years.