Audiences traded one murder mystery movie for another this week as the latest Netflix movie premiere, “The Pale Blue Eye,” rocketed to the top of the most streamed charts in this week’s Wrap report providing an exclusive first look at the most-watched movies and individual TV programs from the past week across both linear television and streaming.
Viewership insights from the Wrap Report come from data analyzed from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households drawn from over 25 million connected TVs balanced to the U.S. Census.
After reigning atop the charts for the last two consecutive weeks, Netflix’s “Glass Onion” was knocked from its perch tumbling all the way down more than 10 spots falling completely off the top streaming charts in its third full week of release.
Taking its place was Netflix’s first big movie debut in 2023, with Christian Bale leading the cast of “The Pale Blue Eye” as a detective that enlists young West Point cadet Edgar Allan Poe to investigate the eerie murder of a fellow cadet in 1830. Following the “Glass Onion” model, the film was released in select theaters on Dec. 23, 2022, before its streaming release on Jan. 6.
Netflix continued to dominate the overall streaming charts again this week with the sophomore season of “Ginny and Georgia” capturing the second most-watched spot, with six of its 10 second season episodes climbing onto the leaderboard. The program showcases a unique mother-daughter relationship that tackles themes of race, self-harm and trauma in an idyllic New England town.
The only streamer to compete for top billing this week was once again Paramount+ with Taylor Sheridan’s double dose of programming, “1923” and “Tulsa King,” nabbing the sixth and 10th spots on the top charts.
The premiere episode of docuseries “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” that examines the most elaborate Ponzi scheme in American history also moved onto the charts landing at the No. 8 most watched spot for the week.
On linear television, Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” mid-season came to a close, with no new episodes this week. The second half of the current season will air later this year. This programming break paved the way for a new broadcast leader to claim the top spot across television this week with CBS’ crime drama “East New York” taking the honors. Notably, nearly every broadcast network’s crime and law enforcement-led series, including CBS’ “FBI” and “NCIS”; NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Law & Order”; and FOX’s “Missing Person’s Unit” all gained spots in the top linear program race this week.
The past week also featured a few surprising made-for-TV moments from the world of news programming and awards shows (which are not included in the Wrap Report leaderboard rankings) with Prince Harry spilling the royal tea during his highly anticipated media tour to promote his new book, “Spare,” and the Golden Globes returning to TV after a year’s hiatus.
The former working royal sat down with Anderson Cooper on CBS’ “60 Minutes” garnering viewership from a princely-sized 6.9 million U.S. households. However, without Duchess Meghan at his side, The Duke of Sussex failed to surpass the audience captured during the initial bombshell interview he conducted alongside Markle with Oprah Winfrey in March of 2021, that earned 8.2 million U.S. households. Despite the full-court media blitz, this latest interview only drew in slightly more viewers than the fabled 60 Minutes crew captures on a typical Sunday evening.
On the awards show front, viewers began a slow return to normalcy for the Golden Globes after a precipitous decline in 2021, and not having aired on TV in 2022, due to controversy surrounding a lack of diversity. Less than 5 million households tuned in for the Hollywood Foreign Press event in 2021 (down from a high of 12.4 million in 2020). This week’s outing captured nearly 6.5 million viewing households, likely bolstered by reforms taken since the 2021 controversy, along with the diversity of this year’s nominees and host.
Dallas Lawrence is the SVP and head of communications and brand at Samba TV, a WrapPRO partner. For more from Samba TV, click here.
