NBC had a massive Sunday night on February 23, with the premieres of The Americas, Suits LA, and Grosse Pointe Garden Society achieving the network’s best Sunday night entertainment programming ratings in almost six years. The three shows, all produced by Universal Studio Group, reached a combined 15 million viewers (within three days of airing).
Here’s the Lowdown: The Tom Hanks-narrated nature documentary The Americas was a particular standout, drawing 6.7 million viewers (across NBC, Peacock, and NBCUniversal cable networks) and becoming the most-watched nature documentary on linear television in over 15 years. The Americas performed exceptionally well in its 7 p.m. (6.7 million viewers) and 8 p.m. (6.1 million) timeslots, giving NBC its best performance in those slots for an entertainment series in nearly seven years. Suits LA and Grosse Pointe Garden Society also saw significant viewership increases when factoring in Peacock streaming. Suits LA generated over 61 million social media engagements.
What This Means Now: This success demonstrates a strong audience appetite for new, original programming on network television, and, also, nature documentaries are not dead! The strong performance of all three shows, especially The Americas, is a major win for NBC.
The Bigger Picture: These impressive numbers, all produced in-house, highlight the continued viability of broadcast television, even in the age of streaming. The success of The Americas could signal a resurgence of nature documentaries on major networks. All three shows are back this Sunday, March 2, with The Americas airing two episodes (“The Wild West” at 7 p.m. ET/PT and “The Amazon” at 8 p.m. ET/PT), followed by Suits LA (“Old Man Hanrahan”) at 9 p.m. ET/PT and Grosse Pointe Garden Society (“Pests”) at 10 p.m. ET/PT. All will be available on Peacock the following day.
