Image: Narcos, Netflix
After two weeks of sketch comedy reigning supreme, we have a change in America’s most demanded series. Children’s juggernaught Spongebob Squarepants moves up from 2nd to 1st with 6.7% more demand. Season 12 of the cartoon is currently airing on Nickelodeon. The show’s twitter account also inserted themselves into conversation around the USA’s top box office film this week. Referring to the maligned original appearance of the cinematic Sonic, they tweeted a ‘redesigned’ Spongebob.
After multiple weeks in the digital original top ten, DC Universe’s Harley Quinn breaks into the overall top ten this week. TV series demand for the animation increased by 52.8% from last week, moving it from 35th to 9th. The release of a trailer for next week’s season finale appears to be driving much of this: the trailer confirms that hugely popular character The Joker will be appearing in the Harley Quinn finale.
NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine solidifies its position in the US top ten series. The sitcom moved from 10th place last week to 8th this week with 10.3% more demand. The demand increases come after the show’s Season 7 premiered on February 6th, with episode 3 airing this week.
The digital original chart also has a change at the very top. After four weeks, Disney+’s The Mandalorian loses its position as America’s most demanded digital original series. The Mandalorian’s replacement is a familiar series to the top ten: Netflix’s Stranger Things. A new trailer for Stranger Things Season 4 was released on February 14th, driving 18.3% more audience interest in the sci-fi blockbuster series.
As mentioned in the overall chart, Harley Quinn strongly increased in demand this week. The animated series moves from 8th to 3rd in the digital original chart.
As well as Harley Quinn, another top ten series enjoyed a sizable demand increase this week, in the form of Netflix’s Narcos. The crime drama enters the top ten in 8th with 29.9% more demand than last week. This comes after Narcos: Mexico Season 2 was released on February 13th. The TV series demand for Narcos is likely to increase again next week, when it will have a full seven days of post-release demand for the new season.
While these shows enjoyed more demand, most originals this week dropped in the charts. As well as The Mandalorian moving off first place, Netflix’s Bojack Horseman, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Witcher, as well as CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Picard all lost ground. A decline in ranking is not surprising for most of these shows which are not actively releasing new content. However, this is not what CBS will have been hoping to see for the still-airing Star Trek: Picard.
This is a reminder that for most weekly release shows a mid-season dip in TV series demand is typical. Recently we have had series like The Mandalorian buck the trend with nonstop week-on-week increases in demand, but these are rare breakout hits. Star Trek: Picard is a more conventional success comparable to fellow CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery. With 6 episodes of Picard still to air there is ample opportunity to reengage US audiences towards the Season 1 finale, just as Discovery did.
