Image: Dark, Netflix
Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants maintains its position as the most demanded series in the United States. The cartoon re-emerged as the top series last week. Two news items helped keep Spongebob Squarepants in the minds of US audiences this week. On June 22nd, it was confirmed the next Spongebob movie has been delayed from August 7th to mid-2021, while a remastered Spongebob video game was released on June 23rd.
Similarly, anime series My Hero Academia maintains its ranking as the series with the second highest television demand. It moved up the ranks last week in advance of this week’s June 27th airing of the US Season 4 finale on Adult Swim. American television demand for the My Hero Academia finale remains very high even though the Season 4 global finale was released earlier this year, airing April 4th on Japan’s YTV.
Turning now to the digital original series with the highest television demand, Netflix’s Stranger Things not only remains the top ranked original in the USA but grew its lead over Disney+’s The Mandalorian. Stranger Things fans had plenty to discuss this week with star David Harbour and showrunners the Duffer Brothers revealing Season 4 details in an interview with Deadline. Elsewhere, the Stranger Things writers shared on Twitter that the Season 4 scripts are now finished, also potentially confirming the season will have an extra episode. As a result, the Netflix drama gained 6.2% more demand against the US average series compared to last week.
The biggest increase in television demand from last week belongs to Netflix’s Dark. Compared to the average demand for a series each week, US audience attention for the German sci-fi drama increased by 30.3%. The third and final season of Dark was released worldwide on June 27th. As the series was released on the last day of the week, it is likely demand will increase further next week when audiences have had more time to react.
DC Universe’s Doom Patrol started releasing new episodes from Season 2 on June 25th. The Season 2 premiere is already outperforming Doom Patrol’s debut season, with the Season 2 peak premiere demand being 26.7% higher than the Season 1 debut peak in February 2019. The superhero series is now releasing simultaneously on two platforms, with US audiences able to officially view episodes on both DC Universe and new platform HBO Max. The increased platform options may be a contributing factor to the higher television demand for this season. Given the reported low uptake of HBO Max, the fact Doom Patrol premiered with three new episodes as opposed to last season’s one episode, plus now having the existing fanbase of a returning series may be more important factors.
Finally, demand for Lucifer also increased from last week to reach 34.8 times the US series average after Netflix announced it was renewing the series on June 23rd. At the same time, Netflix said that Season 6 will serve as the final season for the supernatural drama; attentive readers may recall Netflix said that about Season 5 too. As the show was also cancelled by former network Fox after 3 seasons, Lucifer fans are probably getting used to final seasons. Lucifer Season 5 will be released on August 21st.
