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Just one problem: It does no such thing.
(More on that later.)
Its not that Nielsens raw numbers on consumption are faulty; theyre just misleading.
Lets take a look at what Nielsens data says aboutSuits.
By contrast, another Netflix show The Lincoln Lawyer tallied just under 12 billion minutes of viewing.
That was good enough to make it the tenth most popular streaming original of 2023, and the No.
That 58 billion number forSuitsis based on viewing of 140 roughly 45-minute-long episodes, both on NetflixandPeacock.
By contrast,Lincoln Lawyerracked up its 12 billion minutes with just 20 episodes.
Even when youre comparing two library shows, Nielsens streaming data still lends itself to easy misinterpretation.
For instance, the companys 2023 list of acquired (a.k.a.
library) titles hasFriendsranked No.
8 with 25 billion minutes streamed on Max whileNCISis No.
3 with 39.4 billion via Netflix and Paramount+.
If you just take a quick glance at a top 10 chart, youd thinkNCISis the better performer.
In other words, Americans spent more time watchingBig Bangon TBS last week than they didYoung Sheldonon CBS.
To demonstrate this, I looked up the ratings for a random Wednesday in February of 2015.
On that night, Foxs red-hotEmpiredrew 13 million same-day viewers for Fox.
This is not to argue the data showing big consumption of library shows is meaningless not at all.
Netflix wouldnt pay hundreds of millions of dollars to get the rights to a show likeSeinfeldif there wasnt value.
After all, in the digital TV universe, there are no timeslots or schedules to measure.
On-demand streaming and linear TV are two entirely different ecosystems and business models.
Unfortunately, that has resulted in a less-than-nuanced picture of whats actually popular.
(Tubi and Pluto do a much better job of that anyway, and theyre free.)
This brings us back to something I mentioned at the start of this story.
Indeed, I actually wrotean entire storyabout this last summer in the wake of the summer ofSuits.
Netflix and Peacock have done a stellar job launching unscripted franchises, fromLove Is BlindtoThe Traitors.
