The season three premiere of the Netflix acquired series Good Girls was the only program to capture over 1 billion minutes of U.S. viewing in the major SVOD biz for the week of Feb.15-21, according to Nielsen.
The NBC hit crime comedy’s 34 episodes captured 1.077 billion viewing minutes for the week. The series began airing on NBC in Feb. 2018 and eventually made its way onto Netflix in January 2019. The show is about three suburban mothers who embark on a life of crime. The third season of the show, which jointed seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix on Feb. 16, was cut short due to COVID-19-related production stoppages. NBC had ordered 16 episodes, but season three consisted of just 11 episodes, with the finale airing on May 3, 2020.
In the Nielsen Live+7 linear ratings, Good Girls averaged a 0.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.4 million viewers overall. (Variety) The show was renewed for a fourth season in May 2020.
Per usual, Netflix programs dominated not only the acquired series chart, but also the master SVOD rankings and original series chart.
Netflix’s domination is due primarily to the company’s massive subscriber base. With 73 million U.S. customers, Netflix has far more viewers than any other service that Nielsen ranks, a list that also includes Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus. Also, shows with many episodes mean more total minutes of viewing.
Series with more episodes available for viewing also have an advantage.
All of this conspires to make the performance of Marvel limited series WandaVision on Disney Plus, a service with about 40 million U.S. subscribers, somewhat remarkable.
For the week of Feb. 15-21, seven installments of the eight-part miniseries garnered 720 million views per minute - up 124 million viewing minutes week over week. The series took the ninth spot on the Nielsen’s overall SVOD list and the third spot on rankings of original SVOD series. The Marvel series was again the only non-Netflix program to make both lists.
Joe Berlinger’s four-part Netflix docuseries Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, switched places with Katherine Heigl drama Firefly Lane, placing it atop Nielsen’s original series ranking chart. The crime series, which premiered Feb. 10, tallied 806 million minutes of viewing. Meanwhile Firefly Lane’s 10 episodes captured 780 million U.S. viewing minutes.
This is the first time in two weeks that the series didn’t garner over a billion viewers and take the top spot on the master and originals list. Overall the show was down 508 million viewing minutes week to week.
New Netflix movie I Care A Lot, which debuted on Feb. 19, did what no movie has been able to do three weeks—make the overall SVOD rankings. The thriller about a scam artist (Rosamund Pike) who preys on senior citizens snagged 790 million viewing minutes placing it in the sixth spot in overall viewing and was number one on the movie list.
For first time in weeks, maybe months, Hulu broke into the movie chart with Nomadland. The Oscar contender debuted on the streaming service on Feb. 19 and took in 139 million viewing minutes.
The week of Feb. 15-21 marked the first time Netflix did not dominate or take up half the movie chart. Only four Netflix films took up slots, while Hulu and Disney Plus fare took up the rest.
