Stranger Things rockets back to the top of the Nielsens

Stranger Things rockets back to the top of the Nielsens (as expected) but what else happened? We walk you through the numbers

We had the Stranger Things season 4 finale, and numbers, (as you’ll see), they were impressive, letting the show rocket straight back to the top. Last week we predicted:

Stranger Things season 4 finale will push it back to #1 over The Umbrella Academy. We’re still looking out for Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Boys, and we’d love to see multi-Emmy nominated Only Murders in the Building season 2 hit the chart

One of the easier weeks to predict…

The Nielsen numbers for June 27 – July 3

There’s a new look to the Nielsen ratings table, and a tab combining film and TV audience. We look at Original streaming, it’s US only, a few weeks old and we add the columns marked ‘*’.

Rank	Streamer	Series	#Episodes	Ep length (mins)*	Total Minutes (Millions)	Episode Watches*
1	Netflix	Stranger Things	34	75	5,911	78,813,333
2	Netflix	The Umbrella Academy	30	50	2,219	44,380,000
3	Amazon	The Terminal List	8	60	1,106	18,433,333
4	Amazon	The Boys	23	60	951	15,850,000
5	Hulu	Only Murders In The Build	14	35	526	15,028,571
6	Netflix	Snowflake Mountain	8	40	492	12,300,000
7	Netflix	The Upshaws	18	27	444	16,444,444
8	Netflix	Peaky Blinders	36	60	392	6,533,333
9	Hulu	The Bear (2022)	8	30	349	11,633,333
10	Netflix	Ozark	44	60	330	5,500,000

Stranger Things rockets to the top of the table

We expected a swap of places (last week both Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy reached over 2 billion minutes) but this is a massive step up, and remember the much delayed season 4 volume 1 release only reached just over 5 billion minutes — this is not a long way short of 6 billion. Remember it will include people watching all seasons of the show as the Nielsen amalgamates seasons into a series score.

It’s nothing short of massive, and brings the total since season 4 was released to over 27 billion minutes.

What else happened?

Poor The Umbrella Academy is second with a normally superb 2.2 billion minutes, only a little down on last time. Peaky Blinders is still showing, and Ozark clings to the bottom rung. The Boys numbers are up, keeping it at #4, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is out. Prime Video also has a hit on its hands with action thriller The Terminal List. We focus on the Hulu shows, two of which are showing in the UK on Disney+.

*Only Murders in the Building, The Bear, The Orville*

We are huge fans of quirky, crime podcast show Only Murders in the Building and heartily recommend it, so great news to see it enter the chart. The show is nominated for multiple Emmys and a joy to watch. A second Hulu entry is The Bear. We can’t find this on Disney+ in the UK (we gather a date should be coming), but if as and when it does arrive, looks to be a possible sleeper hit (as Only Murders was). The show has a simple premise:

A young chef from the fine dining world returns to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop.

It’s (as of today) scoring 100% with critics and 91% with audience on Rotten Tomatoes.
This brings us to the third show, The Orville: New Horizons. The show was made over lockdown, and while it’s new to Hulu, we understand the cast has all been released with no renewal. Seth MacFarlane has made it clear the show could come back, but needs an audience. On this showing it’s failed. This is a disappointment as the current season is one of the best shows we’ve seen. It started as a well constructed Star Trek spoof / tribute, but has turned into something we prefer to some of the Paramount offerings.
What are we looking for next time?
The Netflix numbers for July 4-10 are dominated by a top 2 of Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy. We expect Prime Video to have both The Terminal List and The Boys well placed, and Only Murders in the Building to do well for Hulu. Beyond that we look forward to finding out, and bringing you our thoughts next time.