“NCIS” Tops The Nielsen Streaming Charts

“NCIS” Tops the Nielsen Streaming Charts — What It Means
Flashy, new-age thrillers and buzzy originals starting off with fanfare are what usually come to mind with streaming hits. 

But for the week of September 28 to October 5, 2025, venerable procedural drama NCIS pulled a quiet power move: topping Nielsen's "Acquired Shows" streaming chart, registering about 817 million minutes watched in the U.S. that week.

A look at what this achievement reveals-about the show, about streaming habits, and about the continuing value of "old" content in an era of endless new releases.

The Numbers & What They Tell Us
According to Nielsen's weekly streaming rankings:
NCIS ranks #1 on the Top 10 Acquired chart for that week, with ~817 million minutes viewed.
It's competing in a landscape alongside other licensed hits like Law & Order, Bob's Burgers, Bluey.

"Acquired" in this context means that it's content originally broadcast or produced elsewhere that streaming services license and offer, rather than brand-new streaming originals. That nuance is key: this is a show that built its career on linear TV, then migrated into the streaming world, and is now thriving.

This matters because success in streaming is often defined by "newness": first runs, big launches, massive marketing. NCIS shows a different way: enduring presence, day-and-date availability, binge-friendly catalog value.

Why NCIS Still Resonates
Here are several reasons the show remains a streaming winner.
Massive catalog: NCIS has built decades of episodes. Long-running shows like this become “safe bets” for viewers looking for comfort, familiarity, or easy episode picks.

Broad appeal: Procedurals appeal across ages, often don't require you to have watched from Day 1, and can be picked up mid-season, mid-episode.

Streaming availability: The show is licensed on so many platforms, according to the article, including Hulu/Disney+ and several other streaming services, making it easily accessible to viewers.
Back-catalog binge value: when you have lots of seasons, you let viewers go deep, pick favorite episodes, jump around — which drives minutes watched.

Cross-generational & daytime traffic: Where streaming often focuses on new releases and younger demos, shows like NCIS pick up viewers in different parts of the day or night, contributing to “minutes” metrics in a cumulative way.

In fact, this isn't new for NCIS: it has regularly appeared on streaming top 10 lists. Its consistency underlines that its streaming success is not a flash in the pan.

What this says about the streaming ecosystem
Catalog content still matters: While there is endless content being released, viewers are often reaching back for the familiar instead of constantly chasing new ones. Shows that are “evergreen” have great runway.

Metric shift: The minutes watched while streaming differ from the Nielsen ratings of live broadcasts. It values the volume of consumption over new-release buzz.

Licensing remains strategic: Platforms that invest in strong legacy titles-which require lower marketing cost than new originals-can drive consistent engagement.

Viewer behaviour is multi-layered: Viewers still like "new," but they also like comfort, filler, drop-in episodes, and brands they trust. NCIS hits that sweet spot.

Originals vs acquired shows: Much of the debate centers around "originals" - the exclusive shows the streamers make. But the acquired category is powerful, and for many, less risky and more durable long-term.

Implications for Networks, Platforms & Viewers
For networks/owners: The streaming success of NCIS really underscores the value of back-catalog rights. The owners are able to monetize their legacy content over and over.

For streaming platforms: A "library anchor" becomes important because when new releases underperform, the catalog keeps on performing.
For advertisers/sponsors: Platforms that show big minute-counts even for non-new shows can constitute case studies of engaged audiences, not just launch spikes.

For viewers: there's less pressure to chase "the next big thing." The fact that a very long-running, familiar show tops charts shows that viewer comfort + accessibility wins.

A Few Things to Watch & Consider
Nielsen's charts capture what they measure-which is streaming minutes across certain platforms. It might exclude smaller streamers or untracked platforms. This would then be a strong indication, but not the whole picture. While NCIS dominated the acquired chart this week, it didn't top the "Originals" chart. 

That category was led by shows like Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix for the same week. One metric is minutes watched; it does not convey conversion, subscriber acquisition, or viewer loyalty directly, but it's a good barometer of engagement. The nature of the streaming landscape is fluid: licensing windows, shifting rights, and platform relationships with content mean that a show's availability can change-which may affect its future performance.

 Overview In recent years, educators and policy makers have growing concerns due to the increasing rates of obesity in children. Knowing the neural basis for appetitive and consummatory behaviors is important. This knowledge helps determine various distinctions at the levels of both neural mechanisms and behavior. The most common cause of obesity is overeating. The control of food intake involves satisfying neural signals that motivate the initiation of eating, including those that determine meal frequency and size, within a complex interplay. 

Probably, much about the satisfying neural signals has been learned from research on hunger and satiety. Hunger and satiety have conventionally been considered the principal regulators of food consumption and energy balance. When the dust settled for the week of late September to early October 2025, NCIS resumed its place as a streaming heavyweight, surpassing 800 million minutes of viewing to top Nielsen's acquired-shows ranking. What is remarkable is not only that it reached the summit but also that it did so as a catalog procedural rather than as some flashy new launch. 

This shines a light on a few realities: that, apart from the actual seeing of something new, streaming is about depth; audiences love the comfortable feeling of old favorites; and the back catalog is very important. For the show-runners, networks, and platforms alike, NCIS provides a case study in how legacy content can thrive in the streaming age. For viewers, it’s a reminder that sometimes the comfort of “something you know” is at least as powerful as the buzz of “something brand new.”