Image: 13 Reasons Why, Netflix
In the United States, Netflix’s Stranger Things remains the most in demand show for another week. However in a change at the top, fellow Netflix series 13 Reasons Why is America’s new second most demanded show. 13 Reasons Why is up from 23rd place last week after Season 3 was released on August 24th. Despite – or because of – past controversies around the teen drama, US audiences were quick to engage with the new season. Demand soared up to 109 million, just over three times more than last week’s 13 Reasons Why demand.
Another show rocketing back into top 10 is Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe. The animation moves up from 24th last week to 8th place this week. Demand is rising ahead of the September 2nd airing of a highly anticipated special, feature length continuation of the events of January’s Season 5.
The final reappearance in the overall chart is NBC’s Saturday Night Live, which just missed out on the top ten most demanded series last week, ranking 11th. This week, demand for the show is up 29% and it is currently the 6th most in demand title in the US. Saturday Night Live does not return for Season 45 until late September, but this week fans received news that long-serving cast member Leslie Jones will not be returning. However, there was good news for fans too: Hollywood actor Eddie Murphy was confirmed to be returning as a host after a 35-year gap.
In the digital original charts of US streaming TV demand, we have a fresh entry to the chart in 10th place. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance makes its debut appearance following its August 30th release on Netflix. The fantasy puppet-based show is a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film, Dark Crystal. A draw for people who were not existing fans of the Dark Crystal franchise is the series’ star-studded cast, including American sci-fi/fantasy fan-favorites like Sigourney Weaver and Mark Hamill.
Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys and Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black are now multiple weeks past the July release of their most recent season. Both these digital original series have now started to decline in streaming TV demand week-on-week. The Boys has lost 28.3% of last week’s US demand, while Orange Is The New Black is down 11.7%.
Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale is also experiencing declining US demand since Season 3 ended, 20.3% less compared to last week. However, The Handmaid’s Tale premiered much earlier than the Amazon and Netflix series, starting early June. The difference in demand patterns is because while the other series were released all at once, The Handmaid’s Tale was released episodically at weekly intervals until the August 14th finale. This kept streaming TV demand for the series high over 10 week airing period.
The Handmaid’s Tale will be keeping this more traditional release pattern for Season 4. Hulu’s new owners Disney said this week that they favor episodic releases over the all at once approach.
