Bridgerton takes the lead in the latest Nielsens — a piece of good news in a turbulent week for Netflix
In terms of press coverage, Netflix has had a bad week following publication of its Q1 2022 figures. While the fallout (licence sharing cutbacks and even advertising options — see here for more) continues, at least they can take comfort in seeing just how well Bridgerton has done in the Nielsen ratings for March 21-27. As we said last week:
The #1 show next week will be Bridgerton, thanks to season 2 (as we discussed here) and will dominate for a while. We’re looking at the next few positions, and it’s about which shows drop slower than others. Upload and Ozark may well both drop out
We certainly called the #1 spot! Let’s dig into the data…
The Nielsen data for 21-27 March 2022
This is historic (a few weeks ago) and US only, we add the columns marked ‘*’.
| Rank | Streamer | Series | #Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | Bridgerton | 16 | 60 | 2,547 | 42,450,000 |
| 2 | Netflix | Is It Cake? | 8 | 38 | 1,185 | 31,184,211 |
| 3 | Netflix | The Last Kingdom | 46 | 55 | 976 | 17,745,455 |
| 4 | Netflix | Inventing Anna | 9 | 67 | 558 | 8,328,358 |
| 5 | Netflix | Bad Vegan: Fame.Fraud.Fugitives. | 4 | 52 | 429 | 8,250,000 |
| 6 | Netflix | Pieces Of Her | 8 | 50 | 365 | 7,300,000 |
| 7 | Netflix | Ozark | 37 | 60 | 312 | 5,200,000 |
| 8 | Amazon | The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel | 34 | 60 | 285 | 4,750,000 |
| 9 | Netflix | Human Resources (2022) | 10 | 27 | 270 | 10,000,000 |
| 10 | Netflix | Love Is Blind | 25 | 60 | 248 | 4,133,333 |
Bridgerton takes the top spot
It’s an easy win for the Regency romance, and we also learned this week Bridgerton season 2 is now the most popular season on Netflix, surpassing season 1 in the Netflix all time Top 10. We don’t see it losing the top spot any time soon, and don’t forget the Nielsen week is Monday – Sunday, Bridgerton is release on Friday, so this is one weekend’s binge-watch. Expect the numbers to rise!
What else happened?
We’re surprised at the popularity of Is It Cake?, thought need also to consider how well Bake Off tend to do in the Nielsens. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is the only non-Netflix show on the list, holding steady while Ozark has actually risen from #10.
We predicted it might drop out, but its numbers are up a little. The bottom of this week’s table runs down to 248 million, where last week the lowest place garnered 304 million — in other words it’s as if the top few shows absorbed all the viewers.
Our episode watches column tells us Human Resources actually did well in terms of people watching episodes, where as it also suggests Is It Cake? also did well given its far shorter episode length than Bridgerton.
What do we expect next time?
Bridgerton will stay top for a few weeks, and we imagine it could break the three billion barrier. Netflix own data suggests a top 3 of Bridgerton, Is It Cake? and Inventing Anna with the chart also bringing Pieces of Her and Last Kingdom into play. Moon Knight was released and it will be interesting to see if it appears.
Whatever does happen, we’ll bring our unique perspective. Until next time!