Image: Agents Of SHIELD, ABC
Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy makes it two weeks in a row as most in-demand series in the United States after last week’s meteoric rise to the top of the chart. The superhero series saw another week of growth in demand, albeit at a much smaller rate. Compared to last week, demand for The Umbrella Academy against the US market average increased by 3.5%. The series now has 126.0 times the audience demand of the average series in the market.
The fastest growing series in the overall US top ten is another superhero title, ABC’s Agents Of SHIELD. Content demand for the Marvel series increased by 26.6% compared to last week against the market average. The increase in audience attention comes as the long-running network series finally reaches an end. Before Season 7 began airing, the show’s executive producers confirmed that it would be the last season. August 12th saw the broadcast of the finale episode of Season 7 and the concluding episode of Agents Of SHIELD.
The finale of Agents of SHIELD marks the end of the current era of series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on network television. Agents Of SHIELD was the first of these shows when it began airing in 2013 and at this week’s ending has outlasted two other Marvel MCU series on ABC. Agents Of SHIELD also outlasted Marvel six series on Netflix, one on Freeform and one on Hulu. The next phase of Marvel series will appear solely on the Disney-owned streaming platforms, with two Disney+ MCU originals and one Hulu MCU original set to release before the end of the year.
However, it is still many months before the new MCU streaming originals could arrive in the US digital original top ten. Right now, the high content demand from American audiences for Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy is comfortably keeping that superhero series at the top of the chart. Netflix’s Stranger Things and Disney+’s The Mandalorian, the second and third most demanded digital originals respectively, each have less than half of the demand for The Umbrella Academy. However, it should be noted that neither of these shows have recently released new episodes as The Umbrella Academy has.
Maintaining focus on superhero series but moving to the DC franchise, DC Universe’s Stargirl is this week’s fastest growing series in the digital original chart. Content demand for the superhero series increased by 14.1% against the US market from last week, lifting the show to 10th. This increase is due to the finale of Season 1, which was released on August 10th. The show has already been renewed for Season 2, which should air in 2021. As we draw closer to the Season 2 release, Stargirl will disappear from this chart. This is not due to any demand projections, but because Season 2 will first air on broadcast network The CW. Thus, it will no longer count as a digital original for this chart!
