Image: Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) snuggle up in a natural, outdoor setting. (Outlander, Starz – photo credit: AIMEE SPINKS)
Every year, millions of people around the world are faced with a decision at the end of the second week of February: How will they choose to celebrate, if at all, the contentious holiday known as Valentine’s Day? While some will go the traditional route and make reservations for a fancy dinner, others will choose a cozy night on the couch, spending quality screen time with a favorite TV show.
Inspired by the upcoming holiday, we analyzed demand for the top romantic TV series in five markets around the world (USA, UK, Brazil, Japan and Brazil) to determine what type of romance genre is preferred by audiences worldwide. The Parrot Analytics global demand measurement system breaks down romance genres by the sub-genres of Reality, Comedy, and Drama.
Here’s a snapshot of the most in-demand romance TV shows, by market, for when you’re in the mood for love:
USA
United Kingdom
Brazil
Japan
Australia
When we broke out the top 10 series for each market by sub-genre, we see a fairly even distribution of preference for Romantic Reality series (22) and Romantic Dramas (18); Romantic Comedy TV series are the least in-demand shows for each market, with a total of two romantic comedy shows in the top 10 for each market.
The #1 romantic TV show in four out of the five markets analyzed is Outlander, the sexy Scottish drama from American premium cable network, Starz. The 13-episode fourth season premiered on November 4, 2018 and ended in late January 2019, and Starz has renewed the series for a fifth and sixth season.
We took a closer look at the travelability of the series to determine where else in the world the show is making an impact with audiences. Over the last seven days, Outlander’s popularity is highest in the US, followed by Canada, Australia, France, and Spain. Non-English speaking markets such as Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Russia and Israel also make the list.
In its country of origin, Outlander’s demand falls in the Amazing category according to the demand distribution curve. Over the last 7 days, the show is 31.31x as popular as the average show, beating out romantic reality shows such as The Bachelor and 90 Day Fiancé. It’s no wonder the series had an average of 32.2 million Demand Expressions in the US last week!
Regardless of how global audiences choose to spend their Valentine’s Day, one thing is for certain: In this era of Peak TV, audiences certainly won’t be limited to watching only one type of TV show. Gotta love that.
Are you curious about which TV shows are most in-demand in your market? Login to the Demand Portal now or request a demo to get access to valuable insights for your content strategy.
