Even Creator Peter Farrelly Has Binged ‘Loudermilk’ on Netflix

Tony Maglio
·3 min read

“Loudermilk” just got a whole lot louder.

In December 2023 on Amazon Prime Video, the Peter Farrelly (“There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb & Dumber”) comedy starring Ron Livingston (who plays the titular Loudermilk), Will Sasso, and Anja Savcic ranked 828th among all streaming shows, according to Reelgood. Now on Netflix, it’s ninth.

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Even “Suits” could get jealous of that bump.

Each month, Reelgood measures what it calls 20 million “viewing decisions” on 25,000 shows across more than 200 streaming platforms. Check out the measurement app’s aptly titled “Rise from Obscurity” line graph for “Loudermilk,” as shared with IndieWire:

Chart courtesy of Reelgood
Chart courtesy of Reelgood

Before you wave off Reelgood’s methodology, let’s check in with Nielsen, the TV ratings giant.

In its first three weeks on Netflix, “Loudermilk” has made Nielsen’s Top 10 chart for acquired streaming programs each week: eighth twice and 10th once. As an Amazon Prime Video series, “Loudermilk” never charted — and it is safe that say it never came close.

Here, we should point out that Nielsen began releasing its streaming Top 10 in September 2020; “Loudermilk” joined Prime Video in March 2021. Any recent measurement — on Prime Video or on Netflix — does not coincide with the release of new “Loudermilk” episodes. But the difference between the series’ different lives on each of the platforms could not be clearer.

Count Farrelly among the many people who have binge-watched “Loudermilk” since it launched on Netflix. He’s had “a ball,” doing so, he told IndieWire, “because I had forgotten half the stuff.”

Farrelly says his own personal experience with what the industry has dubbed the “Netflix Effect” has amounted to “one of the nicest surprises of my career,” adding a “hats off” to the streamer’s algorithm.

You don’t often hear creatives appreciating computerized calculations, but we get it. Farrelly says he is in no way frustrated by the (very) delayed gratification of this viewership surge — nor is he concerned about residuals. Farrelly is instead elated that people are finally getting to see his “baby,” which wasted away on lesser platforms from 2017-2020.

It was perhaps Jackie Flynn (who plays “Loudermilk’s” Tony Rosetti) who summed the recent experience up best to Farrelly: “I feel like I’ve been in my bedroom doing pushups for five years, and I finally get to go to the beach.”

Sun’s out, gun’s out on Netflix.

“Loudermilk’s” original bedroom was AT&T’s ill-fated Audience Network. After the series was renewed for a third season, Audience Network folded and Amazon Prime Video swooped in. It was quite an upgrade at the time, but Amazon Prime Video isn’t Netflix, and the needle was not exactly moved.

“We loved, LOVED making the show — and then no one saw it!” Farrelly recalled.

The cast and creators enjoyed the experience so much, they’re all down to do more: “Everybody on the show wants back in,” Farrelly said.

Of course, before Farrelly could tell us that, he first had to hear it from Loudermilk himself. Livingston, who Farrelly says has been “tickled” by the Netflix bump, is “100 percent” in for “Loudermilk” Season 4 — and 5.

Ron Livingston in “Loudermilk” Season 2
Ron Livingston in “Loudermilk” Season 2

Farrelly and his series co-creator Bobby Mort already know where “Loudermilk” goes after the Season 3 finale, when Loudermilk’s book finally gets picked up by a big publisher.

(Spoiler alert here for a potential Season 4 plot point below.)

“His book does well,” Farrelly said. “Loudermilk kind of gets back on top. Now, how do you deal with these misfits when all of a sudden you’re having lunch with Neil Young, writing for Rolling Stone? [It’s] the slippery slope of celebrity.”

Sounds like Loudermilk has since become Netflix-Famous.

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