While parts of the internet may love talking about it, the unfortunate truth is Marvel Studios’ “Daredevil: Born Again” is not the ratings juggernaut they wish it was.
The first season of the series launched last year to 7.5 million views in its first five days of availability on the Disney+ streaming service, according to the studio. That’s the biggest premiere of the first half of the year for the streamer, yet it was also smaller compared to some other Marvel launches.
Then the third-party numbers from Nielsen came in and delivered a concerning verdict. Not only did the series fail to show up in the Top 10 originals or overall numbers during its weekly run, but also during the 2-3 weeks afterwards. That suggests both a low weekly viewership and a low post-weekly binge-watching appeal.
We’re now near the end of the second season’s run and Nielsen, which runs a few weeks behind, has started covering its airing period. The new run launched on March 24th and, despite the premiere being available for a full six days of the March 23rd-29th ratings window, it failed to make the Top 10.
In tenth place was “Peaky Blinders” with 449 million minutes watched, which means the “Daredevil: Born Again” second season premiere came in under that. The week was ruled by “Beauty in Black” with 1.36 billion minutes watched, while weekly series like “The Pitt” were at #2 with 1.208 billion, “Paradise” at #6 with 639 million, and “Invincible” at #8 with 474 million.
To give you an idea of context,”Star Wars: The Acolyte” charted at 488 million minutes in its first two weeks and even “She-Hulk” and “Ms. Marvel” made the Nielsen charts at least once.
The verdict isn’t much better from the Penske Media-owned third-party analytics firm Luminate that do keep more current streaming numbers, which are overall generally lower. Even there, the new season has failed to make the Top 10 during its run so far. The most recent chart, for the week of April 10th-16th, the show took in fewer than the 266 million minutes watched by tenth place “Virgin River” that week.
A third season is already in production and coming next year, but the weekly episodic approach appears to only be working for YouTube recapers/reaction channel generators and not actual Disney viewership. Could Disney try a binge-watch approach next season (which should guarantee at least one Nielsen appearance)?
“Daredevil: Born Again” continues its run through until the finale on May 5th, followed by the one-off “The Punisher: One Last Kill” special presentation on May 12th.
Source: Bleeding Fool, Variety, That Park Place.
