“The Office”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Criminal Minds” represent three genres that have been the cornerstones of American entertainment – workplace comedies and medical and police dramas. They also feature a combined library of 830 episodes, which boosted them significantly on Nielsen’s lists, which ranks programs based on total minutes watched. (“Grey’s Anatomy” is still airing on ABC and is in its 17th season.)
“These programs benefited disproportionately from the fact that they just had a lot of properties, they had a lot of episodes for people to watch,” said Brian Fuhrer, senior vice president at Nielsen. “And what they also do is provide a sense of normalcy. They can go back and find out what’s going on with Dwight Schrute. “
Among the original series, the only non-Netflix show on Nielsen’s top 10 list was the popular Disney + “Star Wars”, “The Mandalorian” spinoff.
The Netflix documentary “Tiger King” was the only show on the list of Nielsen’s original series to have only eight episodes. It debuted on March 20, just as requests to stay at home were being issued across the country and a week before the third season of “Ozark” was made available on Netflix.
“The two arrived right at the center of the pandemic when people were locked up at home, with little to do,” said Fuhrer. “Both were seen with extreme intensity.”
While cable and broadcast networks rely on Nielsen to inform them of what people are watching, all transmission companies have their own internal metrics. None of them publicly endorsed Nielsen’s methodologies, nor do they need those numbers to determine which programs to promote or cancel.
For more than a year, Netflix has publicly released worldwide numbers of original shows, providing an idea of what people are watching. But his list comes with significant caveats. Netflix has viewers who watch just two minutes of a program, and the service is extremely selective about the programs and movies it broadcasts. (E.g. Netflix recently said Shonda Rhimes’ new drama, “Bridgerton”, was the service’s fifth most-watched original series, with ratings in the same league as “Tiger King” and “The Queen’s Gambit”.)