During third quarter, complex family relationships, true crime, cocaine sharks and Barbie® were a few of the biggest viewership drivers for the US Networks Group at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which will generate more than 4,000 hours of scripted and unscripted content by the end of 2023. TLC’s 90 Day: The Last Resort and Sister Wives, ID’s High Speed Chase, Discovery’s Shark Week and HGTV’s Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge each delivered standout ratings in the period.
Six networks in the group, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, TBS, TLC and TNT, maintained a top 10 rank among ad-supported cable networks. TLC delivered a quarter-over-quarter ratings gain of 18 percent, while Adult Swim, which started its primetime block two hours earlier at 5 p.m., returned a quarter-over-quarter ratings increase of nine percent.
“We had numerous big wins in third quarter, including Shark Week and Sister Wives, as well as the Naked and Afraid, 90 Day Fiancé, Expedition Unknown, Love & Marriage and All Elite Wrestling franchises—all of which continue to attract a huge share of the nightly cable audience,” said Kathleen Finch, CEO and Chief Content Officer, US Networks Group, Warner Bros. Discovery. “And our new series, like High Speed Chase and Late Night Lockup at ID along with My Adventures with Superman at Adult Swim, exceeded performance goals.”
More than 117 million total viewers on average each month watched the US Networks Group networks, which continue to outperform competitive network groups and together account for nearly a third of primetime cable viewing among Adults 25-54. Two additional series from the group now rank among the top 10 highest-rated unscripted freshman or limited series in primetime year-to-date—90 Day: The Last Resort (TLC) and Naked and Afraid: Castaways (Discovery).
Q3 2023 performance highlights for brands in the US Networks Group at Warner Bros. Discovery include:
- TLC ranked as the #1 cable primetime network among Women 25-54 and 18-49 and the #1 cable network without sports among Adults 25-54 and 18-49 and among Women 18-34 in the third quarter. In addition, the network held four of the top 10 non-sports ad-supported cable programs among Women 25-54 in the quarter.
- Sister Wives was the #1 non-sports cable program in third quarter among Adults 25-54 and 18-49 and Women 25-54 and 18-49. The new season premiere was the series’ highest-rated season premiere in a decade among Adults 25-54, Women 25-54 and P2+. Attracting more than 2.3 million viewers, Sister Wives is up double digits among all key demos versus the previous season run.
- New series 90 Day: The Last Resort was the #1 non-sports cable program on Monday nights among Adults 25-54 and 18-49 and Women 25-54 and 18-49 and the #3 non-sports cable program overall among Adults 25-54.
- 90 Day: The Last Resort is cable’s highest-rated unscripted freshman series in three years among Adults 25-54 and Women 25-54, as well as cable’s #1 freshman series of 2023 to-date among Adults 25-54 and 18-49 and among Women 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34.
- 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days ranked as third quarter’s #2 non-sports cable program among Adults 25-54 and #5 among Women 25-54. The season finale earned the title of highest-rated 90 Day franchise episode in over a year among Adults 25-54 and Women 25-54 and 18-49.
- 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way was the #2 cable program on Monday nights among Adults 25-54 and 18-49 and among Women 25-54 and 18-49.
- TBS ranked as the #2 cable entertainment network in prime among Men 25-54 and 18-49 in the third quarter.
- In 2023 to-date, TBS ranks as the #2 cable entertainment network in prime among Adults 25-54 and 18-49 and among Men 25-54 and 18-49.
- On TBS, The Big Bang Theory remained cable’s #1 acquired series among Adults 25-54, 18-49 and P2+.
- TBS boasts two of the top 5 original cable comedy series so far this year among Adults 25-54—American Dad and Miracle Workers: End Times.
- TNT ranked as the #3 cable entertainment network in prime among Men 18-49 and #4 among Men 25-54 in the third quarter.
- To date in 2023, TNT ranks as the #1 cable entertainment network in prime among numerous key demos, including Adults 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34, Women 18-49 and 18-34, and Men 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34.
- AEW Dynamite, AEW Collision and AEW Rampage reached more than 19.3 million viewers across TNT and TBS in the third quarter.
- AEW Dynamite was the #1 cable entertainment program on Wednesday nights in the third quarter among Adults 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34 and among Men 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34.
- Discovery Channel’sShark Week delivered its highest ratings in three years, with all seven nights of the event outperforming or matching the previous year. Discovery was the #1 primetime cable network for the week among Adults, Women and Men 25-54 and among Adults, Women and Men 18-49 and the #1 primetime network in all of television among Men 25-54 and 18-49.
- In third quarter, Discovery was the #1 primetime cable network (excluding sports) among Men 25-54 and owned three of the top 10 unscripted cable series in the demo.
- New series Survive the Raft is Discovery’s highest-rated non-spinoff freshman series in over two years.
- Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing is Discovery Channel’s highest-rated freshman series in five years and its highest-rated series of 2023 to-date. It was the #1 non-sports cable program in its timeslot among Men 25-54 and the #1 cable freshman series of 2023 to-date for the same demo.
- Expedition Unknown and Expedition X delivered their highest-rated seasons in three years and continue to draw season-over-season ratings growth.
- Food Network ranked as a top 10 cable network among Adults 25-54 and Women 25-54 across every day of the week in prime, as well as a top 5 non-news/sports cable network among Women 25-54 in both prime and total day.
- Two popular series delivered their highest-rated seasons since 2020 among key demos—The Great Food Truck Race among Men 24-54 and Supermarket Stakeout among Adults 25-54 and Men 25-54.
- Beat Bobby Flay posted its highest-rated episode among Adults 25-54 since 2020, while the sophomore season of Bobby’s Triple Threat is on track to be its highest rated to-date among Adults 25-54 and Women 25-54.
- Halloween programming, including Halloween Wars, Halloween Baking Championship and Outrageous Pumpkins,is delivering double-digit ratings growth among Adults 25-54 over the prior six weeks.
- HGTV ranked as a top 10 non-news/sports cable network among both Adults 25-54 and Women 25-54 every night of the week in prime and a top 10 non-news/sports cable network every day of the week among Women 25-54 in total day.
- Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge was the network’s highest-rated title of the third quarter among Adults 25-54 and Women 25-54, with the season ranking as a top 5 non-news/sports cable program among several key demos, including Adults 18-49 and Women 18-49.
- Adult Swim ranked as a top 5 cable network in total day among Adults 18-49 and 18-34, as well as among Men 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34.
- Checkered Past, Adult Swim’s two-hour weekday programming block featuring classic Cartoon Network shows from 5 to 7 p.m., delivered a 102 percent ratings increase among Adults 25-54 and a 106 percent ratings increase among Adults 18-49 over the prior six weeks of Cartoon Network programming.
- My Adventures with Superman ranked #1 in its timeslot among Men 18-34 and is the #2 highest-rated original freshman series for the network this year among Adults 18-49 and 18-34 and among Men 18-49 and 18-34.
- ID closed the third quarteras the year-to-date #1 non-sports cable network in total day among Women 25-54.
- September marked ID’s eighth consecutive month of year-over-year ratings increases among Women 25-54 and the fourth straight month among Adults 25-54.
- ID’s ratings gains during the third quarter were driven by Tuesday and Sunday nights. The network’s lineup includes breakout freshman series High Speed Chase and Late Night Lockup and popular returning series Body Cam and The Murder Tapes on Tuesday nights, while Sunday features hit new specials, including Disappeared: The Bradley Sisters and ID Special Report: The Long Island Serial Killer, as well as fan-favorite series Evil Lives Here, American Monster and Signs Of A Psychopath.
- OWN’s Love & Marriage: Huntsville continues its success as Saturday night’s #1 original series across broadcast and cable among all key African-American demos.
- Ready to Love ranked as Friday night’s #1 original cable series among African-American Women 18+, African-American Adults 18+, African-American Households and African-American P2+. Also on Friday nights, Ready to Love and Belle Collective are two of the top 5 original cable series among African-American Adults and Women 25-54 and among African-American Adults and Women 18-49.
- On Saturday nights, OWN boasted the top two non-sports cable programs among African-American Adults and Women 25-54 and among African-American Adults and Women 18-49 with Love & Marriage: Huntsville and Love & Marriage: Detroit.