New Stats Reveal Surprise Streaming Domination of These Classic TV Shows
The most popular TV shows at any given time are probably not remotely new. Nielsen and Luminate recently revealed the most popular streaming shows of 2024, and it turns out super-old TV shows are having a moment. While the biggest overall TV series of the year was Bluey with 55.62 billion viewing minutes, there were also a few under-the-radar TV series that were big hits this year that nobody is talking about.
According to Variety, Nielsen viewing figures revealed that two very old TV shows racked up viewership in the billions. On Peacock, the 1974 show Little House on the Prairie snagged 13.25 billion minutes. Meanwhile, the very old-school western series Gunsmoke got 10.23 billion on Peacock and Paramount+.
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While Little House on the Prairie may be a familiar comfort watch for folks of a certain generation, Gunsmoke's 2024 popularity is pretty shocking. Adapted from a 1950s radio show of the same name, Gunsmoke became a TV series in 1955 and, counting a few TV movies ran for nearly twenty years.
As of this writing, Paramount+ has Seasons 7-20 of Gunsmoke streaming, while Peacock has Seasons 7-15. Meanwhile, Pluto TV has Seasons 1-21.
Does all of this retro, old-west action mean that new Westerns in general could make a comeback in the streaming TV landscape? In a sense, the popularity of the Yellowstone franchise proves that this trend has been happening for a while now. But, what the 2024 streaming numbers indicate more broadly is that just because an old show suddenly becomes popular as a streaming binge, it doesn't follow that the average viewer wants a new version of that show. For now, it seems that plenty of people are content to lose themselves in a TV series that existed a long time ago, out on a faraway range.