Netflix’s ‘Manifest’ bests streamed television ratings

By STEVEN HERBERT

“Manifest” was the most-watched streamed television program while three other programs were also in the latest top 10 that were not in the previous week’s, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen.

Viewers spent 1.371 billion minutes watching the supernatural drama’s 52 episodes, including the first 10 episodes of its fourth season that were released by Netflix Nov. 4.

“Love Is Blind” was the other program to top the 1 billion minutes watched threshold between Oct. 31 and Nov. 4, with viewers spending 1.223 billion minutes watching the 38 episodes of the Netflix dating show, including three released Nov. 2.

Viewership was up 20.7% from the 1.013 billion minutes watched the previous week when it finished fourth.

“Inside Man” was third with 892 million minutes watched of the four-episode serial thriller the first week it was available on Netflix.

The sibling mystery movie “Enola Holmes 2” was fifth 855 million minutes watched in the first three days it was available on Netflix.

“Gilmore Girls” returned to the top 10 after a one-week absence, placing 10th with 679 million minutes watched of its 153 episodes that originally aired on The WB and The CW from 2000-07. Viewership was up 10% from the 617 million minutes watched the previous week on Netflix.

The Netflix mystery thriller “The Watcher” dropped out of the top 10 after finishing first for three consecutive weeks. Also dropping out of the top 10 were the Netflix film thriller “The Good Nurse”;  the HBO/HBO Max “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon”; and the long-running ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” which streams on Netflix.

All the streamed television programs in the top 10 are on Netflix. Nielsen also announces streaming viewership of Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock and Prime Video programming.

The top 10 consisted of five original streaming series; three acquired series — one each that originally aired on CBS, NBC, and The WB and The CW; one movie; and “CoComelon,” the 18-episode 3D animated series of videos of traditional nursery rhymes and original children’s songs that originated on YouTube.

The top 10 programs were “Manifest”; “Love Is Blind”; “Inside Man”; “CoComelon”; “Enola Holmes 2”; “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities”; “From Scratch”; “NCIS”; “The Blacklist”; and “Gilmore Girls.”

The figures reflect only television set viewing, including such television-connected devices as Roku and Apple TV. Mobile-only viewing is not included in Nielsen’s streaming measurement systems.

While Nielsen releases weekly prime-time broadcast and cable ratings two days after the end of the week, except for holidays, viewership figures for streaming services are not released until 25 days after the end of the week because it takes more time to completely capture assets to report and aggregate streaming viewing, according to Nielsen.

Nielsen has announced it plans to shorten the release window for its streaming programming in the coming months.

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