“NCIS” was the most-streamed program, marking the second consecutive first-place finish by a long-running series still on network television, according to the latest weekly figures released Thursday by Nielsen.
Viewers watched 725 million minutes of 353 episodes of the CBS action drama on Netflix between March 22-28. Viewership was up 27.1% from the 569 million minutes watched the previous week, when it finished fourth.
The increase coincided with a week CBS aired a rerun of “NCIS.”
“Criminal Minds” was second for the second consecutive week, with 656 million minutes watched of 307 episodes of the 2005-20 CBS police procedural crime drama — up 1.4% from the 647 million minutes watched the previous week.
The premiere of the second episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” boosted the Marvel miniseries on Disney+ four spots to third with 628 million minutes watched. That’s a 26.9% increase from the previous week, when viewers watched 495 million minutes of the first episode in its first three days of release.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was the only non-Netflix program in the Top 10 for the second consecutive week.
The previous week’s leader, “Grey’s Anatomy,” dropped to fourth, with viewers watching 610 million minutes of 368 episodes of the long-running ABC medical drama, a 9.4% drop from the 673 million minutes of 367 episodes watched the previous week.
There were two first-time programs in the Top 10.
“The Irregulars” was seventh, with viewers watching 424 million minutes in the first three days of release of the eight-episode British crime drama based on the works of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring the Baker Street Irregulars working for Dr. Watson saving London from supernatural elements.
The Spanish-language thriller “Who Killed Sara?” was 10th, with viewers watching 363 million minutes of its 10 episodes in its first five days of release.
The Emmy Award-winning comedy “Schitt’s Creek” returned to the Top 10 after a one-week absence, placing eighth, with viewers watching 402 million minutes of 80 episodes, nearly identical to the 400 million minutes watched the previous week.
Dropping out of the Top 10 were the film “Yes Day,” the 40-episode Netflix drama about the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II “The Crown” and the 2012 film “Savages.”
The figures only reflect television set-related viewing, including such television-connected devices as Roku and Apple TV. Mobile-only viewing is not included in Nielsen’s streaming measurement systems.
Nielsen also announces streaming viewership of Hulu and Amazon Prime Video programming.
The top 10 consisted of six programs that originally aired on U.S. or Canadian broadcast or cable networks and four original streaming programs.
The Top 10 programs were “NCIS”; “Criminal Minds”; “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”; “Grey’s Anatomy”; “CoCoMelon”; “Heartland”; “The Irregulars”; “Schitt’s Creek”; “Ginny & Georgia”; and “Who Killed Sara?”
