CBS
Near-total control across every major format.All in the Family, The Waltons, M*A*S*H, Hawaii Five-O, Maude, Sonny & Cher, Kojak, Cannon and Mary Tyler Moore made CBS the home of social comedy, family drama, dramedy, crime and variety.
Top 10 TV Shows of 1974: Nielsen Ratings & CBS Domination
PRIME TIME
CHANNEL 1974 TV GUIDE
10 shows • CBS 9 • NBC 1 • ABC 0
Smells Like Gen X • 1973–74 Nielsen Season
Quick Answer • Nielsen Desk
Top TV Shows of 1974 Nielsen Ratings & CBS Domination
The top TV shows of 1974 make the early-decade shift feel completely finished. Prime time is no longer cautiously experimenting with sharper comedy, urban drama or ensemble storytelling. It has fully committed—and CBS has figured out how to dominate almost every version of it.
This countdown uses the 1973–74 Nielsen season, the site’s season-ending-year method for the 1974 rankings. CBS placed nine of the ten programs, including All in the Family, The Waltons, M*A*S*H, Maude, Kojak and Mary Tyler Moore. NBC’s Sanford and Son was the only show that broke through the wall.
What Was the Number One TV Show of 1974?
All in the Family ranked #1 in the 1973–74 Nielsen season. The Waltons finished #2 and Sanford and Son ranked #3. CBS placed nine programs in the top 10, NBC placed one and ABC had none. Jump to the complete ranking or begin the full show-by-show countdown.
All in the Family stays on top.
The shock has worn off. Social conflict, generational tension and
uncomfortable family comedy are no longer the alternative—they
are the mainstream.
Tonight’s Listings • Ten Nielsen Hits
Quick List: Top TV Shows of 1974
The ranking moves from workplace comedy and detective drama through urban crime, variety, family warmth and ensemble storytelling to the social comedy still ruling the entire country.
10
The Complete 1974 Prime-Time Guide
1973–74 season
#9 (tie)
CBS • Workplace sitcom
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
TUNE IN →
#9 (tie)
CBS • Detective drama
Cannon
TUNE IN →
#7 (tie)
CBS • Crime drama
Kojak
TUNE IN →
#7 (tie)
CBS • Variety / comedy
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
TUNE IN →
#6
CBS • Sitcom / social comedy
Maude
TUNE IN →
#5
CBS • Crime drama
Hawaii Five-O
TUNE IN →
#4
CBS • Ensemble dramedy
M*A*S*H
TUNE IN →
#3
NBC • Sitcom
Sanford and Son
TUNE IN →
#2
CBS • Family drama
The Waltons
TUNE IN →
#1
CBS • Family sitcom / social comedy
All in the Family
TUNE IN →
One Network Practically Owns the Entire Board
The 1974 Network Scoreboard
CBS placed nine programs across comedy, drama, variety and crime. NBC’s Sanford and Son reached #3 as the lone outsider. ABC was completely absent from the top 10.
NBC
One program punched straight through the wall.Sanford and Son reached #3 and proved that one electrically specific comedy could still break through a rival network’s near-total domination.
ABC
A complete absence from this ranking.ABC did not place a show in the 1973–74 top 10, highlighting how concentrated network power had become around CBS.
Ten Shows • Two Ties • One Network Everywhere
The Full 1974 Nielsen Countdown
From Mary Tyler Moore and Cannon at #9 to All in the Family at #1, the countdown shows mid-70s prime time at full power: family drama, workplace comedy, urban crime, sharper sitcoms and one network nearly owning the entire board.
CBS
#9 (tie)
WORKPLACE COMEDY MATURES
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #9 (tie)
#9 (tie) — The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show staying in the top tier in 1974 is one of the clearest signs that smart, urban, adult comedy was no longer a novelty. It had become part of the mainstream. This was a sitcom that trusted its audience to enjoy wit, awkwardness, ambition, and emotional realism without flattening everything into a broad family-friendly formula.
What made the series so durable was its tone. It never needed to shout to feel modern. It simply assumed adulthood was interesting. Work mattered. Friendship mattered. Independence mattered. That made the comedy feel contemporary in a way that still reads fresh decades later.
In the broader 1974 picture, The Mary Tyler Moore Show represents the maturing of the sitcom itself. Prime time comedy could now be warm, sharp, and grown-up all at once, helping establish the workplace sitcom as one of the decade’s strongest comic forms.
Why it mattered
it helped prove that sophisticated workplace comedy could be mainstream appointment television.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#9 (tie)
DETECTIVE TV POWER
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #9 (tie)
#9 (tie) — Cannon
Cannon tying for #9 shows just how strong the detective-and-crime lane remained in the middle of the decade. This was not background filler. It was part of the core ratings machinery. Viewers clearly still wanted weekly mysteries, adult stakes, and a commanding lead who could hold the whole structure together.
What makes Cannon interesting in this lineup is that it sits alongside much sharper sitcoms and more emotionally layered ensemble shows without feeling out of place. That tells you the genre had become a permanent part of 70s prime time. Crime drama was no longer the alternative to the mainstream. It was the mainstream.
In the full story of 1974, the show helps explain why CBS dominated so completely. The network was not winning with just one kind of series. It was winning across multiple lanes, and the kind of detective storytelling found across the decade’s private-eye shows was one of its strongest weapons.
Why it ranked
detective TV had become one of the safest and strongest ratings bets of the decade.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#7 (tie)
URBAN CRIME SWAGGER
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #7 (tie)
#7 (tie) — Kojak
Kojak tying at #7 is exactly the kind of result that makes 1974 feel locked into the decade’s real personality. Crime drama is no longer just procedural routine. It now has attitude, urban texture, and a lead character strong enough to become part of the cultural atmosphere around the show.
That character force mattered. A show like Kojak did not live on plot mechanics alone. It lived on presence. The tone was tougher, the setting felt more immediate, and the whole series carried a kind of city-energy confidence that earlier television often lacked.
In the larger chart, it helps show why the mid-70s feel so different from the start of the decade. Drama is less frontier, less rural, less abstractly institutional. It is more contemporary, more urban, and exactly the kind of energy that made 1970s police procedural shows such a major part of the schedule.
Why it stood out
it gave crime TV more swagger and modern city presence without sacrificing broad audience appeal.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#7 (tie)
VARIETY’S LAST GIANT WAVE
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #7 (tie)
#7 (tie) — The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour tying for #7 proves that variety television still had real muscle in 1974, but it had to feel stylish and personality-driven to stay competitive. By this point, the old broad-variety template only survived if the people at the center could make it feel alive.
That was the advantage here. The show did not just offer sketches, guests, and music. It sold chemistry, timing, fashion, and a very specific kind of early-70s star appeal. In a season packed with sharper sitcoms and heavy CBS dominance, it still held its ground because it felt like an event.
In the bigger TV story, the show represents the last major wave of variety as a central mainstream force before other formats took even more control of the schedule.
Why it endured
it kept variety relevant by making personality and pop-style the main attraction.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#6
TOPICAL COMEDY HOLDS
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #6
#6 — Maude
Maude holding the #6 spot confirms that sharp, outspoken, socially aware comedy was not a passing moment. The audience was clearly still showing up for sitcoms built on strong personalities, tension, and a refusal to pretend that every household in America agreed on how the world worked.
What makes the show so important in 1974 is that it had moved beyond novelty. This kind of comedy was now central to the prime-time ecosystem. Earlier network television often tried to smooth away sharp edges; by now, 1970s sitcoms were talking about real life with those sharp edges left fully intact.
In the broader season, its success helps explain why CBS had such a chokehold on the chart. The network was not simply repeating old formulas. It was successfully owning the newer, sharper ones too.
Why it stayed huge
it made argument, character force, and topical friction feel like mainstream sitcom power.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#5
SLEEK CRIME DRAMA
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #5
#5 — Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O at #5 is the sleek side of 70s television at work. It had procedural structure, yes, but it also had style, visual identity, and enough command presence to feel bigger than an ordinary weekly cop show. That combination made it one of the decade’s most durable hits.
Viewers in 1974 clearly wanted television that felt contemporary and distinctive, not just dependable. Hawaii Five-O delivered both. It had authority, momentum, and a setting that immediately made it feel like its own universe.
On this chart, the show helps demonstrate how the CBS lineup could cover so much ground. It had the big family dramas, the sharper sitcoms, and some of the strongest modern crime shows too—the same appetite that helps explain why cop shows ruled so much of 1970s television.
Why it ranked
it made crime TV feel polished, cinematic, and unmistakably contemporary.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#4
THE ENSEMBLE DRAMEDY ARRIVES
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #4
#4 — M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H at #4 shows how much richer and more flexible television storytelling had become by 1974. This was not a simple sitcom, and it was not a straightforward drama either. It was something more elastic—funny, melancholy, character-driven, and sharp enough to feel emotionally smarter than a lot of earlier prime time.
That tonal flexibility is exactly why it matters so much in the story of the decade. Television was learning that audiences could handle more than one emotional register at a time. M*A*S*H could be witty, weary, human, and chaotic without losing its audience. In fact, that complexity helped make it bigger.
On a chart already filled with socially sharper comedy and prestige family drama, the show marks another major turning point: the rise of the ensemble dramedy as one of television’s most powerful forms.
Why it mattered
it proved prime time could be funny and emotionally layered at the same time — and still be one of the biggest hits in America.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
NBC
#3
NBC’S LONE BREAKTHROUGH
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #3
#3 — Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son taking #3—and standing as the only non-CBS entry in the top 10—is a huge statement. The show was not just a hit. It was NBC’s proof that rougher, louder, more character-clash-driven comedy could punch straight through a schedule otherwise controlled by a rival network.
The comedy worked because it never depended on smoothness. It lived on irritation, rhythm, ego, and verbal collisions. That energy felt very different from the cleaner family-sitcom tradition that had dominated earlier TV, and by 1974 that difference was a massive advantage.
In the bigger story of the season, the show also serves as a reminder that even in a year of near-total CBS domination, one truly electric format could still carve out major space.
Why it hit so hard
it turned friction and personality into one of the strongest comic engines on all of television.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#2
FAMILY DRAMA AT FULL POWER
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #2
#2 — The Waltons
The Waltons at #2 is one of the most revealing placements on the entire chart because it proves that even in a decade getting sharper and more modern, audiences still made room for emotionally earnest family storytelling. This was not retro comfort as background noise. It was one of the biggest shows in the country.
What made the series so powerful was its sincerity. It offered warmth, family scale, hardship, and moral feeling without becoming flimsy. In a season full of louder and more argumentative hits, The Waltons represented the other great lane of 1970s family television—closeness, memory and decency rather than confrontation.
Its position at #2 also helps explain how broad CBS’s control really was. The network was not just winning with one style. It was winning with multiple emotional registers at once.
Why it soared
it made heartfelt family drama feel as essential to the decade as the sharper sitcom revolution happening beside it.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
CBS
#1
THE REVOLUTION BECOMES NORMAL
OFFICIAL NIELSEN RANK • #1
#1 — All in the Family
All in the Family staying at #1 makes the point better than anything else on the chart: by 1974, the decade’s defining television revolution was not emerging anymore. It had fully taken control. The biggest show in America still ran on conflict, discomfort, class tension, generational collision, and the refusal to pretend families were simple.
What makes the show so potent is that it does not survive on controversy alone. It works because the structure is airtight and the characters are strong enough to make all that friction funny, watchable, and recognizably human. Audiences were not just showing up for provocation. They were showing up because the show felt truer to real life than the older tidy-network formulas.
In the story of 1974 television, All in the Family is still the flag on top of the hill. The 70s are not just here. They are fully in charge.
1974 verdict
the most important TV change of the decade was no longer a shock — it had become the mainstream.
Back to the TV Guide ↑
The New Television Order Has Consolidated
The 1974 Rewind Verdict
The rankings show a mature mid-70s television system where social comedy, family drama, dramedy, urban crime and personality-driven variety all thrive—mostly under one network roof.
The Decade’s TV DNA Is Fully Visible
The top TV shows of 1974 are a perfect snapshot of mid-70s power television. All in the Family still rules. The Waltons proves emotional family drama can be just as dominant as sharper comedy. Sanford and Son remains a comedy powerhouse. M*A*S*H shows the rise of ensemble dramedy. And CBS, frankly, owns nearly the entire board.
That is what makes this year so useful in the series. It is not just about the rise of new formats. It is about consolidation. The 70s style of television is no longer fighting for room. It already has the room. Now the question is which versions of that style are strongest: social comedy, family drama, crime swagger, or emotionally richer ensemble storytelling.
For a lot of us who knew these shows from first runs, reruns or both, 1974 is one of those years where the decade’s TV DNA is impossible to miss. It is all here, and most of it is coming from one network.
Television Was Only One Part of the Year
Keep Rewinding 1974
Move from the prime-time dial to the toy box, radio and movie theater, then compare the television season before and after it.
The Toy Box
Top Toys of 1974
Evel Knievel, dolls, games, vehicles and the toy aisle gathering
more stunt action and licensed personality.
The Radio Dial
Top Songs of 1974
Disco rising, arena rock expanding and AM radio still making
room for soft rock, soul and novelty hits.
The Movie Theater
Top Movies of 1974
The Godfather Part II, Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno
and Hollywood’s fearless mid-70s run.
Turn Back One Channel
Top TV Shows of 1973
Return to the year All in the Family, Sanford and Son and Maude
made the new prime-time order complete.
Change the Channel
Top TV Shows of 1975
Continue as sitcom power, family drama and crime television
keep rearranging the mid-decade rankings.
The Whole Television Dial
Complete 70s TV Guide
Sitcoms, crime shows, family television, Saturday mornings,
classic shows and every TV year from 1970 through 1979.
Ten Seasons • One Rapidly Changing Decade
Top 70s TV Shows by Year
Follow the ratings from the western-heavy opening of the decade through topical sitcoms, workplace ensembles, urban crime drama, family hits and event television. For the whole decade beyond the rankings, explore the complete 70s TV guide.
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70
1970 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1970
Laugh-In, Gunsmoke, Bonanza and the old network order at full strength.
Open 1970 television →
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71
1971 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1971
The Flip Wilson Show rises while a sharper new decade begins taking shape.
Open 1971 television →
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72
1972 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1972
All in the Family changes the center of gravity and television gets louder.
Open 1972 television →
CH
73
1973 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1973
Urban comedy, social conflict and new ensemble hits keep expanding.
Open 1973 television →
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74
1974 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1974
Waltons, M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son and a broader prime-time mix.
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75
1975 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1975
Sitcom power, police drama and variety all fight for the living room.
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76
1976 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1976
Family comedy, detective shows and event television crowd the rankings.
Open 1976 television →
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77
1977 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1977
Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and ABC’s giant sitcom machine dominate.
Open 1977 television →
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78
1978 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1978
Three’s Company, Laverne & Shirley and broad comedy own the dial.
Open 1978 television →
CH
79
1979 PRIME TIME
Top TV Shows of 1979
60 Minutes, sitcom giants and the final prime-time lineup before the 80s.
Open 1979 television →
Programming Department Answers
Top TV Shows of 1974 FAQ
Quick answers about the #1 show, the ties, CBS domination, the Nielsen-season method and why 1974 matters.
What was the most watched TV show of 1974?
According to the 1973–74 Nielsen season, All in the Family was the #1 TV show tied to 1974.
What was the #2 TV show of 1974?
The Waltons ranked #2.
Were there ties in the top TV shows of 1974?
Yes. There was a tie at #7 between Kojak and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour , and another tie at #9 between The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cannon .
Which network dominated the top TV shows of 1974?
CBS dominated the season, placing 9 of the 10 programs in the top 10.
Why does this post use the 1973–74 season for 1974?
Because television popularity was measured by season rather than calendar year. For year-based nostalgia rankings, the season ending in that year is the standard reference point.
What makes 1974 such a strong TV year?
It is a year of consolidation: socially sharper sitcoms, prestige family drama, ensemble dramedy, and urban crime series all coexist at the top, with CBS dominating across nearly every format.
What were the top three TV shows of 1974?
Using the 1973–74 Nielsen season, the top three were All in the Family at #1, The Waltons at #2 and Sanford and Son at #3.
How many top-10 shows did CBS have in 1974?
CBS placed nine of the ten programs in the 1973–74 top-10 ranking. NBC’s Sanford and Son was the only non-CBS show in the group.
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