In this article we look at the top breakout shows of the past week. Breakout shows are the most in-demand series that have premiered in the past 100 days.
Two new series waltzed into the top breakout shows ranking with a triple digit increase in demand this week. Netflix's latest action thriller series, The Night Agent took the third spot on the chart after it debuted on March 23. Based on a novel by Matthew Quirk, the show follows an FBI agent who is thrown into a vast conspiracy about a mole at the highest levels of the United States government. The series has had an impressively strong debut, becoming the third most viewed debuting series on Netflix and already being green-lit for another season, marking one of the fastest renewal decisions for the streamer. The decision is a great one for Netflix and makes sense given the audience demand for the series - as of this week, it had 35.8 times the average series demand in the U.S., a whopping 372% increase since its premiere.
The next show that also had a massive increase in demand was Paramount+'s Rabbit Hole, another political action thriller that seems to have captivated U.S. audiences this week. Starring Kiefer Sutherland as a private espionage agent framed for murder, the show premiered on March 26 and is set to run for eight episodes releasing weekly until May 08. Like The Night Agent, this show also had an extremely strong debut week, seeing an increase of 286% and becoming 19.3 times more in demand than the average series - impressive, considering Rabbit Hole has released only two episodes so far. It will be interesting to see how it performs over the course of its weekly release schedule, and how far up the ranking it will climb from its position in ninth place this week.
HBO's The Last of Us looks to be heading towards the end of its run at the top of the ranking. The series had a 12% decline and saw its demand fall to 48.5 times the average. Hot on its heels was Prime Video's rock and roll series Daisy Jones & The Six, with 41.7 times the average series demand. The series actually saw a 4% increase in demand this week, as a result of its finale episode airing on March 24. Considering that Daisy Jones & The Six is a mini-series, its likely that demand for the show will fall by next week as audience attention moves to other content. Given that "The Last of Us" is on a downward trajectory, it will be interesting to see which show will take the top spot over the next few weeks.
Two other series that had a significant increase in demand were TV Tokyo's Trigun Stampede (+24%) and The CW's Gotham Knights (+9%). The spike for Trigun Stampede came after its season finale on March 25 and brought the show back in the ranking to take fourth place with 22.7 times the average series demand. On the other hand, the spike for Gotham Knights which moved it up to seventh place in the ranking came after its third episode aired on March 28. Despite recieving mixed reviews, the show seems to be doing well among U.S. audiences seeing as it was 20 times more in demand than the average series this week. Other shows that had a decline in demand this week included Prime Video's Swarm (-20%), Peacock's Poker Face (-6%) and Hulu's History of the World, Part II (-15%). This makes sense when we consider that all three shows ended recently and won't be releasing new episodes any time soon, which led to audiences turning their attention to fresh content.
