“Furious” is one of the summer’s buzziest shows you likely never heard of — until a couple weeks ago at least.
While the Hulu thriller series from “New Girl” creator Liz Meriwether, which follows an ex-cop-turned-FBI agent (Emmy Rossum) hunting down a female serial killer (Lola Petticrew), is now getting its flowers and attracting mainstream attention, “Furious” flew under the radar of the warmer month’s summer releases with little marketing and awareness — and almost too cheesy poster art.
The three-episode premiere of “Furious” debuted in the No. 10 spot on Nielsen’s streaming originals list for the week of July 27, then fell out of the top 10 list by the following week.
But viewership grew gradually as TikTok, Threads and X users discovered and brought attention to the show, enough for Hulu to grant it a Season 2 renewal in late August. The streamer reported viewership for the penultimate episode was up 40% from the premiere. And by the time the finale dropped on Aug. 31, views were up 90% from the premiere, based on one day of viewing data.
In a crowded TV landscape, the delayed success of “Furious” proves it’s still possible for a show to break out through positive word of mouth and social media chatter. It’s also yet another example of a series finding its audience further into its weekly release, enabling the power of passionate fans to work their magic and inspire more people to join the audience before a gangbusters finale.
Not only is it less intimidating to press “play” on a series that has not yet released all its episodes, but it, in fact, provides an incentive to get started as soon as possible in hopes of joining the conversation ASAP.
The weekly release schedule has increasingly been a factor in how well a series fares in the ratings. Just look at “The Pitt” Season 2, which wrapped up earlier this year with an impressive and unique 57% rise from its first run, avoiding the sophomore slump plaguing many a Netflix binge series, including “Running Point” and “Beef.”
And even after the finale, the positive reception for the show — which scored a 98% Rotten Tomatoes with all episodes out — enabled “Furious” to keep snagging viewers even after new episodes stopped airing.
In fact, “Furious” reached its highest demand — which Parrot Analytics counts as social media interactions, search volume and active consumption — after its last episode was released, with its peak demand standing 15 times as high as the average series demand on Sept. 3 — a week after the Season 1 finale dropped on Hulu.
It has all boosted “Furious” to log 43 million hours of viewing globally across Hulu and Disney+ to date.
While it’s rare for a show to match the level of, let’s say, enthusiasm as the fans of “The Pitt,” the fervor for “Furious” is similar to that of the HBO Max medical drama: Fans have a deep respect for the quality of the series as well as the performances within it, and want to share it with others so that it doesn’t, in fact, go overlooked.
Notably, both series succeeded at elevating a classic TV genre — the political procedural and medical drama, respectively — with familiar faces both in front of and behind the camera. It’s another way shows are standing out in 2026, alongside wholly original shows like “Widow’s Bay,” which has been showered with praise throughout this Emmys season.
“Ted Lasso” returns strong
Jason Sudeikis’ “Ted Lasso” returned after a three-year hiatus to strong ratings. The Season 4 premiere boosted “Ted Lasso” to log 866 million minutes during the week of Aug. 3, landing as the No. 4 most-watched streaming series and the No. 2 streaming original for the week. Of that viewing, the single Season 4 episode accounted for 36% of its total viewing.
The Season 4 return of “Ted Lasso” tied with the show’s highest ranking on the original chart, but the viewership this time around actually increased. The Season 3 launch week saw “Ted Lasso” log 539 million minutes across its 23 available episodes, showing that the long gap between seasons worked to build anticipation for the soccer-centric series.
“Sterling Point” locks down YA audience for Prime Video
After making waves with “Off Campus” earlier this year, Prime Video locked down another YA hit capturing the female demo with Megan Park’s “Sterling Point.” The coming-of-age series starring Ella Rubin debuted with 359 million minutes viewed as the No. 9 original streaming series of the week.
Notably, 72% of the “Sterling Point” viewership was women, successfully luring in the audience their YA slate is aiming for.
“Comics Unleashed” sees more demo wins
Bryon Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” is scoring several surprising demo wins of late. After surpassing its late night peers for the first time in late August, demo viewership for a 20-year-old “Comics Unleashed” outpaced both “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday, Sept. 1 — after midnight. Granted, this latest win came when both late night shows were repeats.
“Comics Unleashed” averaged 113,000 demo viewers during the 12:05 a.m. slot, rivaling 111,000 for Kimmel and 99,000 for Fallon, according to figures from Latenighter.
ICYMI:
- “Lanterns” kept its momentum going through Episode 3, with the DC Studios show scoring a series high
- Adam Scott-led “The Whisper Man” was Netflix’s most-watched movie last week, growing its viewership to 33.4 million views
- Netflix found its next true crime sensation in “Death of the Pastor’s Wife,” which dominated the TV list with 13.9 million views on Netflix
