Once again, the One Chicago universe is staking its claim as one of the most watched and most popular franchises on television. As if all three of the series surpassing 10 seasons and being among NBC's biggest original shows wasn't evidence enough, one particular title in the franchise just made a stunning accomplishment for a broadcast show in the streaming era.
On May 28, Nielsen revealed the Top 25 most-watched shows of the 2025-2026 television season across multi-platform viewership on broadcast, cable, and streaming services. The peak position was easily taken by Stranger Things, which burst onto Netflix in the final weeks of 2025 with its last batches of episodes and brought averaged 32.9 million viewers in 35 days.
Chicago Fire makes over Top 25 shows ranking
Even though it's not near the top of the leaderboard, despite ranking in the Top 10 most-watched broadcast shows of the season, Chicago Fire managed to represent the One Chicago franchise in the Top 25 multi-platform shows for the season. Chicago Med and Chicago PD aren't included in this particular ranking, but there's no doubt they follow closely behind.
Chicago Fire holds down the fort at No. 21 with 9.9 million viewers, in a three-way tie with CBS sitcom Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage and Prime Video action drama The Boys. Nielsen measures Chicago Fire's viewership across its airings on NBC and its streaming returns on Peacock, the platform where past and new episodes are exclusively available to stream.
The long-running procedural narrowly missed ranking within the Top 20, where the show is neck and neck with the show ranked at No. 19, fellow veteran procedural NCIS. The CBS smash brought in 10 million viewers between its broadcast network and streaming on Paramount+. Without question, these shows making this ranking are proof that procedural franchises are still beloved.
Making this ranking as TV hits that have been around for decades is quite the accomplishment, but they aren't the only broadcast series on the list. Aside from Fire, NCIS, and Georgie & Mandy, other small-screen favorites such as Tracker, High Potential, Matlock, The Rookie, and more made the overall Top 25 and rank even higher above Chicago Fire. Check out the full list below:
TV Show | Total Viewers | Network/Streamer |
|---|---|---|
1. Stranger Things | 32.9 million viewers | Netflix |
2. His & Hers | 25.6 million viewers | Netflix |
3. Marshals | 20.7 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
4. Sean Combs: The Reckoning | 20.6 million viewers | Netflix |
5. Landman | 19.8 million viewers | Paramount+ |
6. Bridgerton | 18.3 million viewers | Netflix |
7. Tracker | 16.4 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
8. High Potential | 16 million viewers | ABC/Disney+/Hulu |
9. The Pitt | 13.8 million viewers | HBO Max |
10. Monster: The Ed Gein Story | 13.4 million viewers | Netflix |
11. Fallout | 13.3 million viewers | Prime Video |
12. The Beast in Me | 12.7 million viewers | Netflix |
13. Matlock | 11.5 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
14. The Lincoln Lawyer | 11.4 million viewers | Netflix |
15. Sheriff Country | 10.8 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
16. The Rookie | 10.6 million viewers | ABC/Disney+/Hulu |
17. Ghosts | 10.5 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
18. Will Trent | 10.4 million viewers | ABC/Disney+/Hulu |
19. The Madison | 10.2 million viewers | Paramount+ |
20. NCIS | 10 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
21. Chicago Fire | 9.9 million viewers | NBC/Peacock |
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage | 9.9 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
The Boys | 9.9 million viewers | Prime Video |
24. Dancing with the Stars | 9.8 million viewers | ABC/Disney+/Hulu |
Survivor 50 | 9.8 million viewers | CBS/Paramount+ |
Remember that the ranking above was newly introduced by Nielsen last year as a way to measure multi-platform data for both streaming and traditional broadcast and cable series. It's a better way to see how your favorite small-screen favorites are faring these days when streaming viewership is typically larger and can hold much more weight than linear airings on their actual networks.
Additionally, the current standing that ranks the average 35-day viewership of television's most popular shows only factors in data from April 2026. As Variety notes, some shows that hadn't wrapped up their seasons until the following month could potentially drop, so there could be some movement to this Top 25 ranking as fresher data arrives in the coming weeks.
It's unclear where this will come to the benefit of Chicago Med and Chicago PD, which could possibly manage to crack the Top 25, or to the detriment of Chicago Fire, which could even fall out of the Top 25 if other shows overtake its numbers. Regardless, you can't say the One Chicago shows aren't among TV's biggest draws. After all, Fire is the only NBC show to make the Top 25.
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