The latest Nielsen ratings for the first full week of 2022 show Cobra Kai still riding high — we explore everything that happened
In last week’s chart, Cobra Kai stormed into the top position, The Book of Boba Fett made its first appearance and The Witcher was still going strong. The data for January 3-9 has 9 out of 10 shows still on the list, but we’ve looked a little closer. Last week we predicted a top three of Cobra Kai, Stay Close and The Witcher — like a certain piano player we had all the right shows, just not necessarily in the right order.
Speaking of things musical, we’ve taken a more analog approach to this week’s data analysis and used a collection of original 1970s synthesisers to model the audience viewing habits. All this while trying to keep a Moog ladder filter under control and recording an EDMN classic, soon to be available on the CultBox label. Before we get called up for Glastonbury, let’s look at the latest audience viewing figures…
The Nielsen data
We took the Top 10 data for 3-9 January, and added our own analysis in the columns marked ‘*’. This is US audited data only.
| Rank | Streamer | Series | #Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | Cobra Kai | 40 | 34 | 2,153 | 63,323,529 |
| 2 | Netflix | The Witcher | 16 | 60 | 1,105 | 18,416,667 |
| 3 | Netflix | Stay Close | 8 | 45 | 988 | 21,955,556 |
| 4 | Netflix | Queer Eye | 52 | 50 | 723 | 14,460,000 |
| 5 | Disney+ | The Book Of Boba Fett | 2 | 46 | 563 | 12,239,130 |
| 6 | Netflix | Emily In Paris | 20 | 30 | 553 | 18,433,333 |
| 7 | Netflix | Ozark | 30 | 60 | 301 | 5,016,667 |
| 8 | Amazon | The Wheel Of Time | 8 | 60 | 300 | 5,000,000 |
| 9 | Netflix | Lost In Space | 28 | 55 | 291 | 5,290,909 |
| 10 | Netflix | The Great British Baking Show | 75 | 75 | 254 | 3,386,667 |
Cobra Kai still top of the table
A slight drop from last week’s 2,423 million minutes, but Cobra Kai still breaks the two billion minute barrier with ease. The detailed Netflix data for the same period shows all four seasons being watched, with season 4 pulling in all the others at the bottom of their US viewing list. It’s impressive.
What else happened?
The same Netflix data actually matches our prediction with Stay Close second, from the point of view of the Nielsen figures, James Nesbitt’s series has lost out as the numbers have combined both seasons of The Witcher. The audience drop for already renewed Emily in Paris surprised us, but remember there’s a global audience. No sign of Manifest though, and nice to see Boba Fett creeping up nicely.
We bid farewell to Hawkeye, but said hello to the return of Ozark.
What can we look forward to?
The Netflix data for the subsequent week shows Cheer riding high (over Cobra Kai season 4), The Witcher dropping and Archive 81 entering the chart. Add in some Boba Fett and we suspect more Wheel of Time and there’s plenty to look forward to. Whatever happens, we’ll be back (now, who said that?) — until next time.