When It Comes to Second-Run and Library TV Shows, Hulu Is the King

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I won’t lie, by the time my editor/researcher and I got to discussing part three (three!) of my TV recap of 2025, I could tell that he was saying to himself, “Really? We have another article to go?” And then we went over the data together and mutually agreed:

There’s a ton of great stuff to go over.

Honestly, if you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. (Provided you have paid subscribers, you know?)

This third and final recap of streaming television in 2025 goes over Nielsen’s Acquired charts, plus a grab bag of other streaming data sources, a smattering of linear data, and more. Honestly, it might be my favorite edition yet. If you’re coming to this new or want links to what’s come before, here are links for my recaps on 2025 films (on streaming and at the box office), new/debut shows on streaming, and returning shows. After this article, I’ll pick the winners and losers, like I do every year, and share my strategy thoughts.

Let’s dive right in!

Before we get to the acquired shows (because that story is absolutely fascinating), I wanted to explain why I look at and analyze the acquired TV shows:

Acquired TV shows still power so much streaming viewership.

Here’s a list of the top thirty-nine TV shows across all streaming—according to Nielsen’s weekly-released top ten lists—whether the show is new, returning, or second-run. I’ve color-coded shows by whether they’re a “debut” show (meaning a new streaming original, limited or ongoing), “returning” (the second season of a streaming original) or “acquired” (meaning a library title or second-run linear show).

And yeah, acquired TV shows dominate the charts, making up thirteen of the top seventeen shows on streaming last year, mostly consisting of the big three genres: kids shows (Bluey, SpongeBob SquarePants), procedurals (NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy), sitcoms (Big Bang Theory) and animated sitcoms (Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers).

Even though we’re seven years into the streaming wars, acquired TV shows still drive the streaming bus. Even though I cover acquired shows each week in the Streaming Ratings Report, this is a reminder that even I probably need to highlight them more. New/debut streaming shows just don’t put up the same eye-popping numbers as long-running sitcoms, crime, legal & medical procedurals and kids shows. Honestly, I had to lower the bar to 90 million hours just to squeeze some more new shows onto this chart.

To answer one possible objection, yes, long-running broadcast shows have more episodes so, by definition, they’ll rack up more viewership than new shows (which is absolutely true!) and returning shows (which is also true, but not by as big a margin). But also, I’m an advocate for more streaming shows to start accumulating more episodes, something only a few shows, like HBO Max/The Pitt, have accomplished so far in streaming’s history.

Also, “time on platform” is a very valuable goal for streamers. Haven’t we been told, ad nauseam, that this is the metric Netflix, especially, is trying to maximize? They’ve gone so far as to say they’re fighting “sleep”, and if that’s the goal, you need more shows with more episodes available for customers to keep bingeing.

Speaking of Netflix, props to Stranger Things. That show was an absolute beast. Same goes for Bluey on Disney+.

Next up, the top TV shows by streamer:

When I say the streaming wars are as competitive as ever, this is the chart I’m thinking of. Netflix owns thirteen of these shows outright, but that’s out of forty. (And they only co-stream four others.)

But to repeat a point I seemingly make every year and just made four paragraphs ago, Netflix doesn’t make long-running shows. Perhaps this dichotomy (Netflix’s success with new and returning shows versus library titles) explains a certain M&A decision from last year: they wanted not just Warner Bros.’ film library, but their TV library as well, which is filled with long-running TV shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory (sixth on the list), and ER (and arguably the The Pitt now, or in a year or two).

To close out, let’s look at the genres:

Compared to the top new shows and returning shows on streaming, some comedy shows/sitcoms finally popped on the charts, plus a whole lot of procedurals and crime shows and a fair number of genre shows.

Okay, let’s zoom in to just the top acquired shows in 2025 according to Nielsen’s weekly Top Ten Acquired shows charts:

Compared to the last two TV recaps, what a comeback from Hulu! They stream or co-stream ten of the top eighteen acquired shows. Plus, Disney+ has the top show. Netflix streams/co-streams nine. And Paramount+ did well too with five shows.

As a heads up, when it comes to how the charts are colored, I estimate what streamer I think represents the majority of a show’s viewership, but these “percentages” are just guesses based on things like the number of episodes available and the streamer’s user base. I do like including the colors since it better captures which streamers actually stream which shows, whereas “grey” obscures that fact.

Here’s a look at genres:

As I wrote above, when it comes to acquired shows, the classic broadcast genres show up: comedy, procedurals and kids.

I mentioned fascinating takeaways in this article, and this next chart is what I was talking about:

We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out…

• …what type of acquired show drives a ton of streaming viewership.

• …whether long-running legacy sitcoms showed up on Nielsen’s year-end recap of 2025.

• …what kids show has lost its luster.

• …how much streaming viewership linear/broadcast TV shows get on Nielsen.

• …the top shows according to IMDb, JustWatch and Antenna.

• And a lot more…

…please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you’d like to read more about why you should subscribe, please read this article about the Streaming Ratings Report, why it matters, why you need it, and why we cover streaming ratings best.