Cancellation Watch: Stranger Things Has Become One of Netflix’s Most Popular Original Series, Plus the Ratings Roundup

Unless otherwise noted, the ratings numbers below are based on the final overnights and may vary slightly from the preliminaries reported on the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.

Netflix Ratings: The first season of Stranger Things, an 80’s throwback sci fi thriller, debuted on Netflix last month without much advance promotion and with many people not knowing what to expect from it, but it has gone on to become the third most watched original series on that streaming service according to SymphonyAM (see chart below).  That service, a competitor of Nielsen, has compiled numbers for Netflix viewership and estimated that Stranger Things has had 8.2 million viewers based on Live+16 data vs. 6.8 million for Daredevil and 4.8 million for Jessica Jones.  I believe that is average viewership per episode, though the chart is not quite clear on that.  Note that Netflix has previously disputed SymphonyAM’s numbers, but you can read more about how the company collects its data at this link.  Even if these are just rough estimates, it definitely shows that Stranger Things has drawn a significant audience, and much of that from word-of-mouth promotion.  Netflix has not indicated yet if the show will be returning for a second season, but these stats and the good buzz surrounding the show suggest that it has a very good chance of continuing for another year.  Interestingly, the chart of Netflix viewership does not include Between which had its Season 2 bow at the end of June.  Perhaps SymphonyAM does not consider it a Netflix original because the show is a co-production with the Canadian City channel (there are no numbers for Zoo either which is a co-production with CBS).  So whether Between will get a third season at this point is still up in the air.

Ratings Results of Interest: On Tuesday, CBS’ Zoo slipped to a series low 0.6 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic, but that was likely due to competition from the Olympics and the network has already announced the show will be returning for a third season.  On Wednesday, USA’s Mr. Robot also slipped to a series low, of a 0.22 rating with 570k tot viewers, but it was also airing against Olympics coverage.  That show continues to stir up buzz on the social networks and it remains an Emmy contender, so a third season looks like a good bet.  On Friday, Syfy’s Killjoys and Dark Matter saw improvement from the prior week and if they continue to perform well in Canada then they have a decent chance of coming back next year. On Sunday, The Last Ship slipped just a bit, but that’s not bad considering it aired a repeat the prior week and was airing against the Olympics this week. That show has already been renewed for fourth season.

Ratings results for the sci fi / fantasy shows airing Monday August 8th thru Sunday August 14th (metric definitions below):

(Links are to the show pages on this site with season to date ratings results and status updates)

Chart Activity: Still no sci fi / fantasy shows in the Weekly Nielsen Twitter Rating Top 10 for the week, but I expect that to change when Fear The Walking Dead resumes its second season this coming Sunday. Zoo dropped out of the broadcast network Top 25 based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic, but it improved its standing in the Top 25 based on total viewers to Number 20 (up from Number 23) despite a drop in its numbers.

(Updated for the broadcast network and cable Top 25 chart activity)

Be sure keep an eye out for the latest numbers and any breaking news throughout the week at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site. You can see the status of all the currently airing sci fi / fantasy shows at the Cancellation Watch page and also the latest Sci Fi TV Power Rankings post. And for more information on where I get these numbers and how I make my Cancellation Alert assessments, check out the Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ.

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Metric Definitions:

Series: (R) indicates a repeat airing

Rating: Overnight rating in the 18-49 demographic for same day viewing based on the final numbers unless otherwise noted

% Chng: The percentage change +/- for this week’s rating vs. last week’s rating (if a new episode aired last week).

Tot Viewers: Estimated total viewers (age 2+) to tune in to the episode for same day viewing.

StD Rating: Season to date average for the rating metric tracked above.

Net Avg:  The season to date average rating for the network for non-sports, non-special, non-repeat programming.  This data is available for the broadcast networks only.

Cancellation Alert: My prediction of the likelihood that a show will get cancelled. From least to most likely the statuses are Low, Moderate, Medium, Elevated, and High.

Source: ShowBuzzDaily and TV by the Numbers