The Perfect Couple vs Monsters: Who Wins?
Mentioned in this article: Netflix, Ryan Murphy Productions, Lionsgate, MTV Ent, JAX Media, BBC Studios, ITV, Blumhouse, El Desorden Crea, and more.
If you found yourself humming along to the catchy “Criminals”, from The Perfect Couple’s title sequence, you were not alone: the show delivered nearly 300 million viewing hours globally for Netflix in September, equivalent to 59 million views.
But did it beat Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story? Yes and no; “Monsters” delivered 251 million viewing hours but it was only available for 12 days, while The Perfect Couple was available the whole month. Such is the unfairness of calendar-based rankings, but they also present an opportunityy: if you want your show to rank highly in Netflix’s “What We’re Watching” half-yearly report, launch it in January.
However, the real surprise hit might be Prison Break, a show that originally aired two decades ago on the Fox network. Its first three seasons collectively delivered 412 million viewing hours, comparable to Bridgerton: S3’s performance in June.
In total, Netflix’s top 20 TV shows delivered a collective 1.9 billion viewing hours, an impressive 18% increase vs last year and double the amount from August. Just last month I wondered whether there had been a change in the algorithm driving more viewership away from the Top 20. Looks like the answer is...