Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars producing expensive action movies when you can simply pay a celebrity to sit in a chair for a few hours and have a bunch of disturbingly nasty comedians absolutely go to town on him?
That’s undoubtedly what Netflix is asking itself, after its Roast of Tom Brady scored impressive audience numbers in its first full week on the platform.
The comedy special, which included mean comments from Kevin Hart, Nikki Glaser roast regular Jeff Ross and Kim Kardashian, among other comedians, influencers and ex jocks, scored 42.2 million viewing hours and 13.8 million account views from May 6-12, according to Netflix's weekly global audience report.
This was after the roast garnered an impressive 6.2 million viewing hours and 2 million views on just its premiere day, Sunday May 5.
That’s a big audience performance for a Netflix comedy special. Consider the recent standup specials from some of the biggest names in the streaming service’s stable of comic stars: Ricky Gervais: Armageddon scored 8.4 million streaming hours and 8 million views in the last week of December; and Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer garnered 9.7 million viewing hours and 10.2 million account views for the first week of January.
Unfortunately for Netflix, Brady won’t be appearing for another roast, after he made an appearance on “The Pivot Podcast” and stated that he “wouldn't do that again.”
But Netflix is undoubtedly on the lookout for a replacement.
Overtaken by Brady’s roast was last week’s Netflix English-language series champ, limited series Baby Reindeer, which drew 45.4 million streaming hours and 11.4 million views in its fifth week on Netflix.
The biographical docudrama, with the 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, previously reigned over the No. 1 spot for three consecutive weeks.
Also performing well on Netflix’s film side was the Brooke Shields Mothers Day drama Mother of the Bride, which garnered 40 million streaming hours and 26.7 million account views.
Mother of the Bride easily bumped Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted to the No. 2 spot on Netflix's English-language film ranker, despite a slight week-2 surge in viewership to 14.1 million streaming hours and 8.8 million account views.
Unfrosted and Mother of the Bride are the sole original titles on Netflix’s domestic film rankings, which continues to be dominated by acquisitions, including Shrek, Shrek Forever After and Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp.
