Image: Spongebob Squarepants, Nickelodeon
This week, Spongebob Squarepants continues as the most in-demand series with American audiences. The Nickelodeon cartoon has now reigned at the top of the chart for five weeks in a row. This week, demand for the ever-popular sponge is 87.9 times the demand of the average US series. Also continuing is the high levels of US demand for anime series My Hero Academia, which sits just behind Spongebob Squarepants with 86.7 times average.
It is a good week for animations in the US market. Cartoon Network series Steven Universe returns to the top ten this week. Demand for the now-concluded cartoon rose 7.0% against the market compared to last week, moving the show up to ninth overall. At the 2020 Emmys held on September 21st, Steven Universe was nominated in the short-form animation category. However, the show did not end up winning.
The fourth and final animation in this week’s top ten series in the United States is Comedy Central’s South Park. Audience anticipation is building ahead of the satirical show’s special episode on Sep 30th. South Park is also in the news due to rumors of cancellation, driven by misinterpretation of an Australian network dropping the cartoon. South Park is in fact contracted to continue airing new seasons on Comedy Central through to 2022.
In the digital original top ten, Disney+’s The Mandalorian is the new most in-demand series. With 60.2 times the US average series demand, the Star Wars title moves up from ranking second last week. The Mandalorian replaces YouTube Premium’s Cobra Kai. Compared to last week, demand for The Mandalorian is largely unchanged so this movement is mostly based on a streaming television demand decrease for Cobra Kai. Cobra Kai loses 6.3% against the market demand compared to last week, indicating the demand boost from being added to Netflix is starting to wearing off.
This week’s fastest rising digital original series is Hulu’s The Handmaids Tale. Relative to the market, audience attention on the drama increased by 33.5% from last week. This week, fans got some casting news for the upcoming Season 4. The show also made headlines after being linked again to contemporary US politics, this time in connection to the Trump Administration’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice. As we have previously seen in the US and elsewhere in the world, costumes from the Hulu drama were worn at protests.
Finally, demand for Netflix’s The Witcher rises slightly, moving the series from tenth last week to ninth this week. The main news around the fantasy drama this week is that some new characters in Season 2 have had to be recast. In a story that will likely be repeated across other shows, this recasting is due to scheduling conflicts created because of pandemic-related production shutdowns.
