The Nielsen ratings for the week of October 3-9, 2022 were just released. As always, Nielsen remains the gold standard for TV ratings. Streaming numbers are notoriously difficult to pin down since the various streaming services keep their internal metrics secret. These services do not want the general public or their competitors to know which of their shows are bombing or how their successful shows compare to other streaming services’ successful shows.
Nielsen’s ratings are the best that we have for gauging the popularity of the various streaming shows. Nielsen releases four main streaming charts. There are the Movies Top 10, the Acquired Top 10 (network/cable TV shows that are licensed to the streaming services), the Original Top 10 (shows the streaming services produce themselves for their streaming service only), and the Overall Top 10 (combining the three prior categories together).
Overall Top 10 Chart
The Battle for the Overall Top 10 was easily won by Netflix as it grabbed seven spots in the Top 10. Disney+, Prime Video, and HBO Max all managed one property apiece in the Top 10. Netflix continues to experience little competition in this category.
Dahmer shows no signs of easing up at all as it grabbed the number one spot. With ten episodes in the bank, Dahmer hauled in 2.3 billion minutes viewed. No other property even came close to Dahmer this week. These numbers are incredible. People cannot get enough of this show.
Disney’s latest attempt to cash in on nostalgia in Hocus Pocus 2 grabbed second place with just over 1 billion minutes viewed. Sure, this is a rather distant second-place finish, but this still has to make Disney happy. I am not surprised at all by Hocus Pocus 2 finishing in second place. Hocus Pocus is a cult hit with a massive following. I know so many people who adore this movie and watch it multiple times around Halloween time every year.
With seven episodes released, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power came in third place with 988 million minutes viewed. This has to be a crushing disappointment to Prime Video. Rings of Power is a show that Amazon has spent an idiotic $715 million for this first season. When you start approaching $1 billion spent on a single season of a TV show you would absolutely expect more than a distant third-place finish. What a disaster Rings of Power is turning out to be for Amazon.
House of the Dragon, with eight episodes released, grabbed fourth place with 921 million minutes viewed. This is an impressive showing by House of the Dragon considering that this show also airs on cable TV every week. This leads to a splitting of the audience as a large portion of viewers does not watch House of the Dragon via HBO Max. Combining the two audiences would certainly push House of the Dragon past Rings of Power.
Cocomelon rounded out the Top 5. The curse of all parents with children grabbed 773 million minutes viewed.
What is absolutely shocking is that Disney’s Marvel Studios show in She-Hulk and Disney’s Star Wars show in Andor failed to make the Overall Top 10 chart. This is stunning.
She-Hulk, with eight episodes, released, still failing to make the Overall Top 10 chart is further proof of the MCU’s crumbling foundation. I thought that Charlie Cox appearing as Daredevil in episode 8 might be enough to give She-Hulk a big dumb in viewing numbers. I was obviously wrong. Not even popular Charlie Cox could get people interested in this train wreck of a show.
Andor, with five episodes in the tank, still cannot crack into the Overall Top 10. Star Wars used to be the gold standard of all Hollywood franchises and by a wide margin, too. Now? Disney has mismanaged Star Wars so horribly that a new Star Wars show cannot make it into the Overall Top 10 chart.
Original Top 10 Chart
Netflix dominated the Original Top 10 chart by grabbing six spots. Disney+ came in a distant second place, with two properties in the Top 10. Prime Video and Hulu each grabbed one spot apiece.
Dahmer and Rings of Power took first and second place. We then see Cobra Kai in third place with 558 million minutes viewed. It always warms my heart to see Cobra Kai still doing well on this chart, although the latest season dropped all of its episodes all the way back on September 9, 2022. That is some impressive staying power. Cobra Kai is one of my all-time favorite shows, and it is wonderful to see how it continues to pull in viewers.
We finally see She-Hulk as it comes in at the number 7 spot. She-Hulk received 454 million minutes viewed. This is a massive failure for Disney that their new MCU show could not even take third place on the Original Top 10 chart.
It gets even more depressing for Star Wars, as Andor barely made it into the Original Top 10 list by taking the number 10 spot with 356 million minutes viewed. This is horrendous. Disney has both a Star Wars problem and a Kathleen Kennedy problem. Denying these two facts will not help Disney going forward.
All right, that is it for this week. It will be interesting to see if Netflix continues its domination of the Overall Top 10 chart. At this point, She-Hulk seems dead, and I would expect to see it continue to fail to crack into the Overall Top 10 chart. While I was not impressed with Andor’s initial numbers, I did think it would gain steam and rise up in the charts. I am no longer that bullish on Andor’s future success in the charts.
