uzayrae kaelynne gilleabert
Mica Withington
Audiences can't get enough of the third season of Bridgerton. According to Nielsen (via Variety), the popular Netflix series was watched over the course of 1.4 billion minutes in the week that began on May 27 and came to a close on June 2. The total viewership number also included the first two installments of the series, as viewers from all over the world struggled to catch up in order to be ready for the new episodes of the production based on Julia Quinn's novels. As more information becomes available surrounding the release of the third season of Bridgerton, it's clear that splitting the season into two parts might've been beneficial for the streaming platform.
The third season of Bridgerton followed Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) as he returned from abroad. The young man's complicated relationship with Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) has stolen the spotlight during the third installment of the series, taking into account the shocking revelation surrounding the character. Ever since releasing the latest season of Stranger Things in two batches of episodes, Netflix has felt very confident about the strategy that can allow the platform to score more engagement over a short period of time. The viewership numbers obtained by the science fiction hit and by the third season of Bridgerton might point towards audiences preferring a single season split into two parts over Netflix' usual release model of dumping all the episodes at once.
Another impressive fact about Nielsen's report is how Bridgerton managed to score such numbers with only twenty episodes of the series available on Netflix by the time the engagement was measured. Since then, four more episodes of the television adaptation have been released, with fans now eagerly waiting for the fourth installment of Bridgerton. Luckily for them, the fourth season of the series was announced alongside the third installment. Netflix saw how successful Bridgerton became over the course of the pandemic, and the company decided to place all their bets on their latest smash hit.
Bridgerton wasn't the only streaming highlight during the week of May 27. Audiences were also ready to enjoy Atlas, the action story starring Jennifer Lopez about a brave warrior who has to protect the world from a dangerous artificial intelligence model that threatens to change life as we know it. Viewers also gave Eric a shot, with the miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character scoring 672 million minutes viewed during that week. Regardless of the competition, whenever a new season of Bridgerton drops, the beloved historical romance reminds the world why it quickly became one of the most successful television series in recent years.
Per early numbers from the streaming platform, Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation is an Appa-sized hit, notching 21.2 million "views" in its first four days of availability. That was also good enough to make it the most-watched title on Netflix during the week of February 19-25.
Streaming viewership numbers can be a little hard to parse these days, but to put that number into context, that puts Avatar's debut about 13% above Netflix's recent adaptation of One Piece, which opened to 18.5 million "views" over its first four days back in September.
Netflix has been more transparent with viewership numbers over the past year or so, with that "views" metric essentially being determined by the number of hours viewed divided by the total runtime of a film or episode.
And taking all of that into context, it bodes well for those hoping for a second season of this live-action version of The Last Airbender. Netflix announced about a week after One Piece's debut that those numbers were enough to score it a second season, which is currently in development.
Neither Netflix nor the creative team have shared any news about a potential second installment yet, and the streaming platform is likely monitoring how those viewership numbers hold, along with fan sentiment, before making an official call. Another one of Netflix's live-action adaptations, Cowboy Bebop, was canceled shortly after its widely derided first season back in 2021.
For a whole lot more on Avatar: The Last Airbender, check out my digital cover that breaks down my visit to the set, as well as my full interview with showrunner Albert Kim and executive producer/director/VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani.
The cast features Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castaeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Cameron Britton, Mary J. Blige, John Magaro, Adam Godley, Colm Feore, Justin H. Min, Ritu Arya, Yusuf Gatewood, Marin Ireland, Kate Walsh, Genesis Rodriguez, and Britne Oldford. The adaptation began development as a film optioned by Universal Pictures in 2011. It was eventually shelved in favor of a television series in 2015, before being officially greenlit by Netflix in July 2017. The series is filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, both of which are located in Ontario.
The first season was released on Netflix on February 15, 2019. In April 2019, Netflix reported that 45 million households had watched season one during its first month of release, thus becoming one of the most-streamed series of the year. The second and third seasons subsequently followed on July 31, 2020, and June 22, 2022, respectively. In August 2022, the series was renewed for a fourth and final season, which is set to be released on August 8, 2024.
The Umbrella Academy is set in a universe where 43 women around the world gave birth simultaneously at noon on October 1, 1989, although none had shown any sign of pregnancy until labor began. Seven of the children are adopted by eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves and turned into a superhero team that he calls "The Umbrella Academy." Hargreeves gives the children numbers rather than names, but their robot-mother, Grace, later names six of them: Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben, and Vanya.[1] Reginald puts six of the children to work fighting crime but keeps Vanya apart from her siblings' activities, claiming she demonstrates no powers of her own.
The first season is set in the present day, where Luther is part ape and has lived on the Moon for four years, Allison is a famous actress, Vanya is a violinist, Klaus has a drug addiction, Five disappeared sixteen years earlier, Ben, now deceased, is a ghost able to converse only with Klaus, and Diego has become a vigilante. The estranged siblings learn that Reginald has died and gather for his funeral. Five returns from the future, revealing that a global apocalypse is imminent, but is chased by time-travelling Commission operatives Hazel and Cha-Cha. The reunited siblings try to uncover the secrets behind Reginald Hargreeves' life and their dysfunctional relationships are strained. They band together to try to prevent the impending apocalypse.[2]
The second season sees the siblings scattered in Dallas at different times in the early 1960s (as a result of the events of the first season), establishing lives for themselves. Five arrives there on November 25, 1963, minutes before a nuclear doomsday that is linked to JFK not being assassinated, but with the help of Hazel manages to travel back ten days. Five is hunted by a trio of Swedish assassins but finds his siblings, who have all made new lives, and attempts to reunite them in order to stop this new apocalypse.[3]
In the third season the siblings realize their actions in the past created a new timeline and returning to 2019 is vastly different where they have been replaced by another Hargreeves superhero group adopted by Reginald, dubbed "The Sparrow Academy". They also have to find a way to stop a kugelblitz from consuming and destroying the universe created as a result of the grandfather paradox the siblings caused through their time-travel.
A film version of the comic book series The Umbrella Academy was optioned by Universal Studios. Originally, screenwriter Mark Bomback was hired to write the screenplay; Rawson Marshall Thurber reportedly replaced him in 2010.[30] There had been little talk of the film from that time. In an interview with Newsarama at the 2012 New York Comic Con, Way mentioned that there have been "good talks" and a "really good script", but that it was "kind of up to the universe".[citation needed]
On July 7, 2015, it was announced that The Umbrella Academy would be developed into a television series produced by Universal Cable Productions, rather than an original film.[31] On July 11, 2017, it was officially announced that Netflix had greenlit a live-action series adaptation of The Umbrella Academy with Way and B acting as executive producers, to premier in 2019.[32][33] Jeremy Slater wrote the script for the pilot episode, and Steve Blackman serves as showrunner.[32] The first season of The Umbrella Academy was released on Netflix on February 15, 2019.[34][35][36]
On April 2, 2019, the series was renewed for a second season, which was released on July 31, 2020.[37][38] It was also confirmed that the second season would consist of ten episodes, like the first season.[39] The season release date remained unknown until May 18, 2020, when a teaser trailer concept was released where the main cast danced to "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany.[40] Steve Blackman confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to stay close to the content of the comics.[11] On June 26 it was revealed that the series would be taking place at the 1960s in Dallas, due to the time travel from the end of the previous season.[41]
On November 10, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third season, which was released on June 22, 2022.[42][43] While the series initially had a "TV-14" rating for its first two seasons, the maturity rating was increased to "TV-MA" for its third season, mainly due to an increase in profanity.[44]
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