Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman in “Special Ops: Lioness”.
July 24, 2023
The first episode (July 23) of the new Paramount+ action drama “Special Ops: Lioness” generated 918,000 U.S. households during the live window, while 218,000 households watched the second episode, according to new data from Samba TV, which tracks viewership intel across 48 million connected televisions worldwide.
The series from show runner Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone”) co-stars Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman, Laysla De Oliveira, Jill Wagner and Morgan Freeman, among others.
By comparison, 280,000 domestic homes last Nov. 13, 2022, streamed the first episode of Sheridan’s high-profile crime drama, “Tulsa King,” which Paramount+ rolled out the promotional carpet for, showcasing Sylvester Stallone as an ex-con sent to Tulsa, Okla., to set up business for his former boss.
Regardless of the content theme, Sheridan resonates with viewers, says Cole Strain, VP of measurement products at Samba TV.
“With some of the most diehard fans in television, the ‘Sheridan-verse’ continues to deliver,” Strain said in a statement.
Indeed, older audiences, aged 65-74, over-indexed by the highest margin of any age demographic by strong double digits, according to Samba.
Strain says the data consistently illustrates that Sheridan single-handedly brings in and retains viewers for the network, with almost one in four Paramount+ viewers watching Sheridan-backed projects alone in the second half of last year.
“Special Ops” is the latest in a string of successful originals for the showrunner, proving Sheridan is still Paramount+ heavyweight when it comes to audience viewership,” Strain said.