Image: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO
After a two-week streak as the most in-demand show in America, Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty drops off number one this week. Demand was high around the Season 4 finale, which aired on May 31st. However, with the animation now 2 weeks post-finale demand has dropped by 20.8%, sending Rick And Morty down to 6th place. The title of most in-demand series in the USA reverts to Nickelodeon’s enduring Spongebob Squarepants.
The recent protests have influenced this week’s most demanded series. New to the chart in 9th place this week is HBO's topical late-night series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The show’s most recent episode on June 7th was devoted entirely to police brutality in the USA, causing demand for the series to increase by 51.5% from last week. The high demand for this episode shows how Americans are seeking to understand more about the current issues with policing. Relatedly, demand for TVOKid’s Paw Patrol is also up after a minor controversy in the press around the show’s portrayal of the police to children. Paw Patrol is one of the most demanded children’s series in the United States so this week’s 11.3% increase easily lifted the show to 9th overall.
Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is maintaining high demand this week and remains in 5th place. The cartoon originally aired between 2005-2008, however the series has experienced a resurgence in interest from American audiences since it was added to Netflix’s US catalog in mid-May.
In the digital original top ten, 13 Reasons Why from Netflix goes straight to the top of the chart. Audience streaming demand nearly tripled following the June 5th release of Season 4. This marks the conclusion of the teen drama; Netflix announced Season 4 would be the final season in August 2019. 13 Reasons Why also reaches 2nd in the US overall top ten.
Netflix’s new sitcom Space Force slips to 9th this week. The show debuted in the digital original top ten as the show with the 8th highest audience streaming demand in last week’s top ten. With demand already down by 2% from the launch week, it seems unlikely that the series will rise any further this season.
Finally, Netflix’s The Witcher returns to the top ten. Demand grew by 6.8% after it was confirmed this week that the COVID-19 production hiatus will end. Filming of Season 2 will resume on August 3rd.
