By Analysis firm Luminate published its year-end analysis in 2024, looking at both TV production and series viewership, and much of the talk in the wake of it has gone to its numbers around the ratings of one show in particular – “Star Wars: The Acolyte”.
Luminate says that all the major streaming franchises – including Marvel, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings – underperformed last year. “Rings of Power” second season total minutes watched were down as much as 60% compared to the first season.
On the Disney+ service, the late Christmas 2023 release of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” led to it becoming the most-watched show of last year with over 3 billion minutes viewed. “The Acolyte,” the most-watched new series on Disney+ launched in 2024, came in second place with 2.7 billion minutes. “Agatha All Along” was in third with 2.28 billion minutes, “Echo” in fourth with 1.54 billion minutes, and “X-Men ’97” was fifth with 1.44 billion minutes.
The report says while mixed fan reactions were likely a factor for “The Acolyte” cancellation despite its success, more impactful was that viewership for the show saw significant decreases after the first two episodes and into the finale. In contrast, last year’s “Ahsoka” saw a big decline in its third week but rose in the weeks after through to the finale.
The “Skeleton Crew” series decline from the third week to the finale wasn’t as sharp as it was with “Acolyte”. But overall ratings were notably below “The Acolyte” and the series totalled 914 million minutes watched – the lowest new series of the Top 10.
As the series was released in the last few weeks of the year and didn’t have a full season available until earlier this month, it should fare better in next year’s report.
In terms of all Top 10 TV originals, the Harlan Coben adaptation “Fool Me Once” released on New Year’s Day topped the list with 12.1 billion minutes watched. “Bridgerton” was second with 11.1 billion, “Landman” third with 9.9 billion, “The Perfect Couple” fourth with 8.8 billion, “Tulsa King” fifth with 8.5 billion, “Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story” sixth with 8.16 billion, “The Gentlemen” seventh with 8.06 billion, “Fallout” eighth with 7.95 billion, “Griselda” ninth with 7.6 billion, and “Love is Blind” tenth with 7.4 billion.
The impact of the strikes was felt heavily in production last year – not just with shows going on break, but even when they did come back – the number of episodes was slimmer in many cases.
Combined with us being on the downhill slope of Peak TV, and the total hours of drama series episodes ordered in 2024 was 2,492 – down from 3,400 episodes in 2019. Unscripted series and comedies are down much steeper than drama too.
The full report is up at Luminate Data.
Source: Deadline
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