Viewers traded a murder mystery movie as another Netflix movie premiere this week, with “The Pale Blue Eye” reaching the top of the most streamed charts in this week’s Rap Report, which lists most-viewed movies. and individual TV events from the past week on 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 homes, drawn from more than 25 million connected TVs balanced for the U.S. Census.
After ruling the chart for the past two consecutive weeks, Netflix’s “Glass Onion” was knocked off its perch, falling completely off the top streaming chart in its third full week of release, falling down more than 10 spots.
Taking its place is Netflix’s first major film debut in 2023, with Christian Bale leading the cast of “The Pale Blue Eye” as a detective who sets out to investigate the gruesome murder of a fellow cadet in 1830. Young West Point cadet inducts Edgar Allan Poe. The “Glass Onion” model, the film was released in select theaters on December 23, 2022, ahead of a streaming release on January 6.
Netflix again continued to dominate the overall streaming charts this week, with the second season of “Ginny & Georgia” nabbing the second most-watched spot, with six episodes of its 10 second season climbing the leaderboard. The show follows 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” taking the sixth and 10th spots on the top chart.
The premiere episode of “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street”, a documentary investigating the most elaborate Ponzi scheme in US history, also moved up the charts for the week peaking at number 8 as most watched.
On linear television, Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” ended mid-season 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 on television this week, with CBS crime drama “East New York” taking the honor. In particular, nearly every broadcast network’s crime and law enforcement-based series including CBS’ “FBI” and “NCIS”; NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Law & Order”; and Fox’s “Missing Persons Unit” all entered the race for top linear program this week.
The past week featured some amazingly produced TV moments from the world of news programming and award shows (that aren’t included in the Rap Report leaderboard rankings), including Prince Harry during his much-anticipated media tour to promote The royal tea was spilled. His new book, “Spare,” and the Golden Globes are returning to TV after a one-year hiatus.
The former working royal sat down with Anderson Cooper on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” drawing an audience of 6.9 million US households. However, without Duchess Meghan, the Duke of Sussex failed to surpass the audience it caught during the initial bombshell interview Markle did with Oprah Winfrey in March of 2021, which garnered 8.2 million US households. Despite the full-court media blitz, this latest interview only attracted slightly more viewers than the fictional portrait of the 60 Minutes crew on Sunday evening.
On the awards show front, viewers began a slow return to normal for the Golden Globes after a sharp decline in 2021 and not being televised in 2022, due to controversy over a lack of diversity. Fewer than 5 million households tuned in for the Hollywood Foreign Press event in 2021 (down from a 2020 high of 12.4 million). This week’s outing captured nearly 6.5 million viewing households, possibly due to improvements made since the 2021 controversy, as well as the diversity of this year’s nominees and hosts.
Dallas Lawrence is SVP and Head of Communications and Brand at RapPro Partner, Samba TV. Click here for more from Samba TV.
