Image: The Mandalorian, Disney+
The week of 25 February - 03 March brought quite a few changes in the streaming original rankings, and a new player in the overall shows rankings as well. While South Park remained the top show in the U.S. for yet another week, demand for the show fell by 9% as audience attention shifted towards other shows. Despite the decline however, impressively South Park was still 101.8 times more in demand than the average series in the U.S.
The CW’s The Flash slid down to fifth place in the rankings despite seeing a minor (+3%) increase in demand this week. The series lost its position to The Mandalorian (which entered the overall rankings for the first time in months) and Stranger Things as the two digital originals both had a greater increase in demand. Saturday Night Live moved to sixth place (up from eighth last week) with 61.4 times the average series demand, a 15% increase since last week. The spike in demand for the show came as a result of the ‘Weekend Update’ segment in the episode that was hosted by Woody Harrelson on February 25, which many fans called “the funniest ever”.
HBO’s The Last of Us held on to its position in seventh place with 60.4 times the average series demand. The 10% increase in demand for the show came ahead of the penultimate episode airing on March 05. It is highly likely that we will be seeing some more double digit increases in demand for the apocalyptic series next week as viewers begin catching up to the episodes in preparation for the finale on March 12.
The Mandalorian finally knocked Stranger Things out of first place and became the most in demand streaming original in the U.S. with 64.2 times the average demand. The 35% increase came after the season 3 premiere on March 01. While it’s been over two years since The Mandalorian last aired any new content, audience attention seems to be firmly focused on the series at the moment especially since the first episode took a completely different turn in terms of Grogu’s story. Stranger Things also had a 5% increase in demand this week, the result of the announcement of a stage play prequel set in the 50’s featuring a young Hopper.
Apple TV+’s beloved sports drama series Ted Lasso had an impressive 58% jump in demand and rose up to take third place in the rankings with 49.7 times the average series demand in the U.S. this week. The increase came right after Apple TV dropped the first full trailer for the upcoming season which is set to premiere on March 15. Between new episodes of The Mandalorian, Star Trek: Picard and Ted Lasso all coming together this month, it will be interesting to see which series will win the battle and command the highest U.S. audience attention over the next few weeks.
Investing in Young Adult content is clearly a strategy that seems to be working for Netflix, with its popular YA venture Outer Banks entering the rankings in fifth place with 42.2 times the average demand in the U.S. this week. The 82% increase in demand for the series came after its third season premiered on February 23. The last three positions in this week’s rankings stayed the same as last week with 1923, Wednesday and The Witcher taking eighth, ninth and tenth place.
