Image: Rick And Morty, Adult Swim
This week, Disney’s Star Wars series enjoyed high TV demand from American audiences. Of course, this is to be expected when the week includes Star Wars Day itself, May 4th! Two events in particular impacted the overall chart.
The biggest impact comes from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The final episode of Season 7 became available on Disney+ on May 4th. This was moved up from the initial airdate of May 8th. With Season 7 confirmed as the last season, this was the final ever new episode and ended the series. Demand for The Clone Wars finale skyrocketed to 43.7% more than last week’s already high demand, replicating last week’s increase.. This easily ensured it remains the USA’s most demanded series for a second week in a row.
The second Star Wars event to impact the overall US top ten comes from The Mandalorian. High-profile director Robert Rodriguez tweeted on May 4th to confirm that he will be directing an episode of Season 2. While that is already good news for some fans, he ensured the attention of the internet by accompanying the announcement with a picture of Baby Yoda, the first such image from Season 2. As a result, The Mandalorian is up from 16th last week to 7th most demanded in the USA this week, a 25.2% TV demand increase.
However, other series still managed to capture audience attention. TV demand for Adult Swim’s Rick And Morty is up 35.4% week-on-week. The adult animation returned on May 3rd, airing the first new episode of Season 4 since December 15th, 2019. As well as marking the return of a highly popular series, the episode also attracted attention for including a coronavirus reference. This surprised fans as Rick And Morty is renowned for long production schedules and is usually non-topical.
In the digital original top 10, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian are ranked first and second for the reasons covered above. They lead Netflix’s Stranger Things, which drops to third with the rise of The Mandalorian.
The two DC Universe series in the chart both rose in TV demand week-on-week. Titans saw a slight growth of 1.2%, while Harley Quinn had a larger rise of 15.6%. The Batman-universe animation is currently airing new Season 2 episodes weekly.
Both of last week’s newly debuting digital original series prove they have some staying power with audiences by remaining in the top ten for a second week. Apple TV+’s Defending Jacob does lose some ground, moving from last week’s high of 5th to 9th. Meanwhile, there is no change for Netflix’s The Midnight Gospel which holds steady at 10th.
