Image: Lucifer, Netflix
This week in the USA, Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants continues as the most demanded series. Anime series My Hero Academia also remains in place as the second most demanded title. Both series are gaining attention this week and are showing a very slight growth in demand from last week’s chart.
American audience TV demand for Disney+’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars increased by 25.6% from last week’s market average difference, moving the show up to 9th overall. This increase comes after Disney announced a The Clone Wars spinoff series titled Star Wars: The Bad Batch on July 13th. The new series will premiere on Disney+ in 2021 and continues a plot introduced in the Disney+ original season of The Clone Wars. Also announced was that The Bad Batch’s executive producer will be long-time Disney showrunner Dave Filoni.
Interestingly, this means the US Top Ten currently includes three series worked on by Dave Filoni. As well as acting as executive producer for The Clone Wars (9th most in-demand this week) and The Mandalorian (10th), Mr Filoni also served as a director on Avatar: The Last Airbender (5th). With this track record, we look forward to seeing how high he can take The Bad Batch.
There is good news this week for the COVID-delayed finale of AMC's The Walking Dead Season 10. The concluding episode came one step closer to fans this week as it was announced that the new air date will be announced at San Diego Comic-con. Audience TV demand rose slightly (4.6%) against the market on this initial announcement.
Stranger Things holds on as the most in-demand digital original series this week. The demand increases for Disney+’s Star Wars series still do not threaten the Netflix tentpole: Stranger Things has 64.4 times the market average demand this week, while The Clone Wars increased to 49.0 times average.
This week’s fastest rising series on the digital original chart is Lucifer, which moves from 13th to 5th. Netflix released a trailer for the drama’s upcoming Season 5 on July 13th, prompting week-on-week demand to increase by 37.5% relative to the market. Lucifer Season 5 has been split into two parts, the first of which will be released on Netflix on August 21st.
After the boost provided by last week’s trailer, demand for The Umbrella Academy has cooled. US audience TV demand declined by 10.3% week-on-week compared to the market average title. Demand will likely start to rise next week as the July 31st Season 2 premiere becomes imminent.
