In this article we look at the top breakout shows of the past week. Breakout shows are the most in-demand series that have premiered in the past 100 days.
Netflix's The Sandman was the stand out new series this week. It was the most in-demand recent release, topping the charts with 23.8 times the demand of the average series. This is the latest screen adaptation of a book by Neil Gaiman. Other recent adaptations drawing from his work have consistently been some of the most popular series including Lucifer and Good Omens. In fact, consistency is one of the best descriptors for how Gaiman's adaptations resonate with audiences. Recent season premieres almost uniformly peak at around 25x the average series demand despite premiering on a variety of platforms over the past several years. Knowing this, the choice to adapt The Sandman looks like a safe bet by Netflix on a reliable performer.
It was the calm before the storm among new shows in the US this week as multiple platforms cleared out their release schedule ahead of what is looking to be a battle royale between HBO's House of the Dragon and Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in the coming weeks. Disney seems to have learned a lesson about defensive scheduling after premiering Obi-Wan Kenobi on May 27th, the same day as the massively popular Stranger Things dropped its 4th season. Since then, Disney+ has pushed back the next Star Wars live action series, Andor, from August 31 to September 21 in order to avoid competing with the upcoming shows in the Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones franchises.
After last week's surge in demand, Paper Girls from Amazon Prime Video is quickly falling out of favor with audiences. Demand for the show fell by 22% this week and it just barely made the cut for the top 10 breakout shows. Despite its demand falling 9% this week, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin may still bounce back. The final set of three episodes this season is scheduled to be released on August 18th.
