Image: South Park, Comedy Central
With a 12.2% increase in TV series demand against the US market from last week, Japanese anime My Hero Academia replaces Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants as the most in-demand series. Rumors of a release date for My Hero Academia Season 5 spurred fan conversation and activity around the series. It is thought Season 5 will start airing in Spring 2021. The two animated series are close together in demand: Spongebob Squarepants averaged 90.8 times the typical US series demand over the week while My Hero Academia averaged 97.4 times.
The fastest growing show in the overall US TV series demand chart this week is Comedy Central’s South Park. As expected, the satirical animation’s one-hour special that aired on September 30th drew a lot of American audience attention. The often-controversial show took aim at a number of current issues, focusing mainly on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, demand for South Park increased by 63.1% against the US average moving the show up to rank third overall.
The swift rise of South Park means that the three most in-demand series in the USA this week are all animated.
Several other shows also experienced strong gains in demand this week. Demand for Netflix’s Stranger Things increased 24.9% against market average after it was reported this week that filming for Season 4 has restarted. Meanwhile, Fox’s venerable animated sitcom The Simpsons increased in demand by 26.9% after Season 32 premiered on September 27th.
Demand for NBC’s Saturday Night Live increased 19.6% against the US series average after previews of Jim Carrey playing presidential candidate Joe Biden were shown this week. These were teasers of the first episode of Season 46, which aired on Saturday October 3rd. As the show airs late on Saturday night at the very end of the seven days analyzed, the full episode airing’s impact on demand will be more visible next week.
In the chart of ten digital originals with the highest TV series demand in the United States, as mentioned demand increased for Stranger Things. This means the 80s-set sci-fi drama moved up from ranking third last week to once again becoming the most in-demand digital original series. Last week’s most demanded series, Disney+’s The Mandalorian, drops to 4th.
DC Universe’s Titans is the second fastest rising series, increasing in demand by 9.1% compared to the market average. Although initially scheduled to air soon in late 2020, Titans Season 3 has been delayed due to COVID-19 production difficulties and will now air in 2021. The demand movement is likely due to unconfirmed rumors that despite this delay, the show has already received a Season 4 renewal.
