Arnold Schwarzenegger, Monica Barbaro in “FUBAR”
June 30, 2023
Netflix naming “The Terminator” star Arnold Schwarzenegger its chief action officer produced dividends as his new comedy-drama “FUBAR” topped Nielsen weekly household TV streaming with more than 1.7 billion minutes consumed across eight episodes through June 4.
Schwarzenegger headlines the series as a CIA operative on the verge of retirement who is sucked back into the espionage business after discovering his daughter (Monica Barbaro) is also an agent. The show held off 1.4 minutes consumed for the week across 128 episodes of “S.W.A.T.” co-streamed across Hulu, Netflix and Paramount+.
While Netflix has dominated Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 streamed household content chart since it began tracking the data, the week ended June 4 marked a surprising surge among the SVOD pioneer’s competitors. Netflix shared two of the other Top 10 spots (“N.C.I.S.” and “Heartland”) with other platforms Paramount+ and Hulu, Peacock, respectively.
Indeed, Netflix only accounted for three other Top 10 solo spots for the week with “All American” (922 million minutes across 91 episodes), “Manifest” (749 million minutes across 62 episodes), and the animated children’s show “CoComelon” (604 million minutes across 22 episodes).
The latter has become a Nielsen regular charter and hit for Netflix, which reportedly invested $100 million in the cartoon series, which began on YouTube and generated a legion of followers. The show is owned by Moonbug Entertainment and produced by the Irvine, Calif.-based Treasure Studio. Moonbug owners include former Disney CFO Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, who helped launch Disney+.
| Rank | SVOD Provider | Program Name | # of Episodes | Minutes (Millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | FUBAR (2023) | 8 | 1.725 billion |
| 2 | Hulu / Netflix / Paramount+ | S.W.A.T. | 128 | 1.408 billion |
| 3 | Apple TV+ | Ted Lasso | 34 | 1.244 billion |
| 4 | Netflix | All American | 91 | 922 million |
| 5 | Netflix / Paramount+ | NCIS | 443 | 755 |
| 6 | Netflix | Manifest | 62 | 749 |
| 7 | Hulu / Netflix/ Peacock | Heartland | 232 | 747 |
| 8 | Disney+ | Bluey | 129 | 716 |
| 9 | Max | Succession | 39 | 607 |
| 10 | Netflix | Cocomelon | 22 | 604 |
Source: Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, AppleTV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock and Netflix), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing through Television