It’s the first Disney show to rise to No. 1 all year
The Season 3 premiere of Disney+’s “The Mandalorian,” the live-action “Star Wars” show that played a key role in the service’s 2019 launch, jumped through hyperspace to the top of the charts in the latest Wrap Report, which highlights viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households drawn from over 25 million connected TVs. Though it defeated a large streaming empire in the process, the victory was weaker than one might have hoped.
The long-awaited new season’s first episode was less of a standout measured against other recent Disney+ releases. A gap of more than two years after the second season finale may have allowed some “Star Wars” fatigue to settle in. The episode outpaced the premieres of “Star Wars” spinoff “Andor” by nearly 50% in viewership, but still fell short of “Loki” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi’s” audience by double digits, trailing those launches by 35% and 28%, respectively. Meanwhile, the interconnected spin-off series “The Book of Boba Fett” barely edged out “The Mandalorian” by 2%.
Netflix also had a major debut in the first week of March with its initial foray into live comedy, with a Chris Rock-fronted global performance streaming on the platform nabbing the No. 6 spot on the charts this week. “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” addressed not just the slap heard round the world at last year’s Oscars, but covered the field, even dipping into the royal family drama with some time spent on Meghan Markle.
As speculation and buzz surrounding the trial and sentencing of Alex Murdaugh played out in real time, the three-part Netflix docuseries dominated the streaming charts for the second week in a row with all three episodes remaining on the leaderboard behind only “The Mandalorian.” Just as the tragedies put the small town of Hampton, South Carolina, on the map and unearthed other local unsolved mysteries, the national spotlight shining on the trial and its fallout helped spur interest in the true crime docuseries. The “Murdaugh Murders” demonstrated unusually strong staying power beyond the initial premiere window.
Netflix’s Gen Z series “Outer Banks,” now in its third full week of streaming, also showed sustained interest in the first two weeks post-release as the second half of the season took the last four spots on the charts.
Top streaming shows, March 1-7, U.S. (Samba TV)
Coming in at No. 5, Netflix’s original family-friendly movie “We Have a Ghost” retained its position on the leaderboard, marking the second consecutive week the Jahi Di’Allo Winston-led movie landed atop the charts.
On linear broadcast networks, talent competitions, including NBC’s Season 23 debut of “The Voice” and ABC’s “American Idol,” reigned as the most-watched on the new report. The two-part “The Voice” blind auditions kicked off longtime coach Blake Shelton’s final season as new judges Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan joined.
One of the longest-running reality shows on television returned to the charts. Season 44 of CBS’s longtime series “Survivor” debuted at No. 7, with its newcomers stranded on the islands of Fiji battling one another in mental and physical challenges.
Top linear shows, March 1-7, U.S. (Samba TV)
For the third consecutive week, Queen Latifah’s “The Equalizer” delivered for CBS, while “Bachelor” Zach Shallcross made his final four picks and prepared to kick off hometown dates in his journey to find love at No. 9.
Meanwhile, crime drama series continued to do well for NBC, with “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire,” both ranking high.
Dallas Lawrence is the SVP and head of communications and brand at Samba TV, a WrapPRO partner. Follow him on Twitter at @DallasLawrence. For more from Samba TV, click here.
Samba TV uses television technology to power real-time insights, measurement and audience targeting to enable marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Samba TV’s proprietary first-party data from tens of millions of opted-in TVs, across more than 20 TV brands sold in over 100 countries, provides advertisers and media companies a unified view of the entire consumer journey, including currency-grade measurement derived from a 3 million household research panel balanced and weighted to the U.S. Census.
Samba TV's lead contributor is Dallas Lawrence, senior vice president of communications and brand. Lawrence previously served as the head of communications for Roku's platform business. Connect with him on Twitter: @DallasLawrence.
Samba TV
Samba TV uses television technology to power real-time insights, measurement and audience targeting to enable marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Samba TV’s proprietary first-party data from tens of millions of opted-in TVs, across more than 20 TV brands sold in over 100 countries, provides advertisers and media companies a unified view of the entire consumer journey, including currency-grade measurement derived from a 3 million household research panel balanced and weighted to the U.S. Census. Samba TV's lead contributor is Dallas Lawrence, senior vice president of communications and brand. Lawrence previously served as the head of communications for Roku's platform business. Connect with him on Twitter: @DallasLawrence.