Narcos: Mexico leaps to the top of the Nielsens as most shows swap places
We’ve got the Nielsen data for the week 8-14 November and there’s a new number 1 show. The chart looks very different from last time, yet a second look shows most of the same shows, just in a different order (a little like the Eric Morecambe approach to piano playing). Last week we made the following predictions (and we’ve stopped for reasons explained in that piece [Netflix now publishes its data much earlier]):
we predict a general falling off for all out top 4. In the absence of a clear new title (and this looks like a very fillable gap), we see You holding top 2, and the others all falling. Squid Game could drop into the lower half as well
We scored pretty well (see below), so definitely a good moment in which to bow out of the forecasting game. While this means less analysis, the team took time to to look at historic trends, then decided to spend watching Spiderman trailers ahead of this week’s big release was more important. Luckily Dr Stranger* was on hand to give us his own views.
*Not the Dr Strange played by Benedict Cumberbatch anything to do with any copyrights held by Marvel, Disney or anybody. Honest
The Nielsen data for November 8-14
Remember this is US data only, and we add the columns marked ‘*’.
| Rank | Provider | Series | # of Episodes | Length (Minutes)* | Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | Narcos: Mexico | 30 | 55 | 769 | 13,981,818 |
| 2 | Netflix | You | 30 | 45 | 675 | 15,000,000 |
| 3 | Netflix | Big Mouth | 49 | 28 | 598 | 21,357,143 |
| 4 | Netflix | The Great British Baking Show | 73 | 75 | 576 | 7,680,000 |
| 5 | Netflix | Maid (2021) | 10 | 55 | 445 | 8,090,909 |
| 6 | Netflix | Squid Game | 9 | 60 | 426 | 7,100,000 |
| 7 | Netflix | Locke & Key | 20 | 50 | 409 | 8,180,000 |
| 8 | Netflix | Catching Killers | 4 | 36 | 217 | 6,027,778 |
| 9 | Apple TV+ | Ted Lasso | 22 | 30 | 216 | 7,200,000 |
| 10 | Hulu | Dopesick | 7 | 60 | 214 | 3,566,667 |
Narcos: Mexico is the #1 show
This caught us out and is a clear leader, in a week where shows seems to have clustered together in terms of viewing minutes. It’s a moderate number compared to figures we saw only a few weeks back, but top of the chart is something to note.
What else happened?
We were clear You would maintain momentum (and should still feature for a while) and Squid Game is now fading away into history (until the next season!), and viewers did like Big Mouth (another animated series). The Great British Baking Show always does well, and leads us to wonder about the appeal across the Atlantic.
Tip for next time
Two big releases come into play in the next set of data, The Wheel of Time and (US viewers only) Star Trek: Discovery season 4. We don’t know if Discovery will get reported in the Nielsens, but with the publicity push, watch for Wheel of Time in next week’s chart.