Image: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Apple TV+
In this article we look at the top breakout shows of the past month. Breakout shows are the most in-demand series that have premiered in the past 100 days.
The craze for ‘Godzilla’ and other monster content appears to make it a lucrative genre for studios to invest in, as we see in the case of Apple TV+’s Godzilla based series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The sixth instalment and the second TV show in the MonsterVerse franchise, Monarch has commanded incredible audience attention since it aired its first two episodes on November 17. Demand for the show in December soared by 71%, making it the most in-demand breakout show in the U.S. for the month, with 31x more demand than the average series. Monarch followed a weekly release schedule over the holiday season, and is set to air its finale on January 12 so we expect to see a further increase in demand for the show this month.
Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off also had a successful December, with demand for the show increasing by 61% placing it in second place with 28x the average series demand. The anime series released on November 17, so it’s interesting to see that demand for Scott Pilgrim reached the level that it did; the increase could be attributed to families having more time to binge over the holiday season. As predicted last month, Showtime’s Fellow Travelers did end up having a notable 18% spike in demand in December, likely attributed to its finale which aired on the 15th. The show ended up climbing up the ranking to third place (up from ninth last month) with 26.4x the average series demand.
After a highly successful debut run, Blue Eye Samurai saw its demand drop by 15% and slid down the ranking to fourth place this month. Despite the decline, its performance is impressive seeing as it still managed to make the top 5 for the month of December, a full month after its release during a period where it had to contend with a slate of holiday programming. On the other hand, Lawmen: Bass Reeves continued to increase in demand - this month by a further 8% - and rose up to take fifth place in the ranking with 24.7x the average demand. The increase is likely due to its finale on December 17.
After spending weeks at the top of the ranking, a 26% decline in demand saw Amazon’s Gen V fall to sixth place with 24.6x the average series demand. It was followed by Hulu’s A Murder at the End of the World which had a 52% increase in demand. The mystery thriller show aired episodes from November 14 to December 17, which explains the spike in demand this month. The show made its debut on the ranking in seventh place with 24.4x the average demand.
In eighth and ninth place this month we see two more new shows in the ranking - Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, and Showtime’s The Curse. The Squid Game show has garnered considerable audience attention since it’s release, which is reflected in the increase in demand noted for the month of December - 113%. The demand drivers behind the huge spike in demand appears to be two-fold: firstly, seeing that Squid Game was a massive smash hit, it’s evident that fans of the shows would have been eagerly tuning in to see the series. Secondly, the three-part release strategy that Netflix followed for the episodes of the show could have prolonged audience engagement, making the show 23.7x more in demand than the average series in the U.S. in December. The Curse also increased in demand, although on a comparatively smaller scale, by 27%. The series is set to air episodes until its finale on January 12, so another small spike in demand for the month of January is likely as well.
