Are She-Hulk and The Rings of Power ‘runaway’ hits?
By Kent R. Kroeger (November 10, 2022)
“Shows like The Rings of Power and She-Hulk have been runaway successes — why can’t keyboard warriors admit it?” Marc Burrows of The New Stateman asked his readers?
Perhaps because it is not clear that they are ‘runaway’ hits?
According to Nielsen Media Research, She-Hulk attracted 390 million viewing minutes for its premiere episode in the week ending Aug. 28, and a total of 3.01 billion viewing minutes over its first eight episodes from Aug. 15 to Oct. 9 (see Figure 1 below).
The Rings of Power, in turn, garnered 1.25 billion viewing minutes in its two-episode premiere week, and a total of 6.38 billion viewing minutes over its first six episodes from Aug. 15 to Oct. 9 (see Figure 1).
Do those audience numbers qualify as ‘runaway’ hits? Who makes that judgment? To borrow some phrasing from late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, I think I know a ‘runaway’ hit when I see it.
And it is not obvious that She-Hulk or Rings qualify as hits.
Figure 1: Nielsen Streaming Ratings for Selected TV Shows (Aug. 15 — Oct. 9, 2022)
