Netflix Top 10: The most-watched shows in the world right now
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Netflix’s newest hit series, The Diplomat, is a high-stakes political drama in the vein of The West Wing, boasting a star-studded cast and a creator who also worked on NBC’s Clinton-era drama about a fictional Democratic presidential administration. New data, in fact, reveals just how much of a hit The Diplomat has proven to be for Netflix so far. It’s the #1 series in the world this week on the streamer, per Netflix’s global Top 10 ranking — the latest updated version of which we’ll take a closer look at below.
Netflix Top 10 (April 17-April 23)
Starting with The Diplomat Season 1, here are the top 10 most popular Netflix shows in the world at the moment:
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The Diplomat — 57.4 million hours viewed
The Night Agent: Season 1 — 56.6 million hours viewed
Beef: Season 1 — 42.8 million hours viewed
Love is Blind: Season 4 — 39.4 million hours viewed
Florida Man — 29.5 million hours viewed
Obsession — 27.1 million hours viewed
Better Call Saul: Season 6 — 14.7 million hours viewed
How to Get Rich — 14.5 million hours viewed
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing — 13.1 million hours viewed
Wednesday — 9.5 million hours viewed
Moving right along, we’ll next take a closer look at the top two series this week, both The Diplomat as well as the breakout hit The Night Agent, which came in at #2 worldwide for this latest 7-day snapshot (and has now spent 5 weeks on this chart).
#1: The Diplomat
It sort of feels like it’s been a minute since a broadcast network or streamer has given us a juicy political drama to sink our teeth into. It’s the kind of show that’s especially perfect for Netflix, given that the OG Netflix original was just such a title (House of Cards) — within the past few days, though, a new series in this genre landed on the streamer and looks set to be its next big hit.
The Diplomat comes from creator and showrunner Debora Cahn, and the cast of this 8-episode series includes Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Rory Kinnear, and Michael McKean. Cahn was also a writer/producer for Homeland, and in a Netflix promotional interview, she explained that she was drawn to the idea that would become The Diplomat after meeting a number of ambassadors while working on Showtime’s hit spy drama.
From Netflix’s official logline for the show:
“Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) is the new US Ambassador to the United Kingdom. She was supposed to go to Afghanistan. She’s great in a crisis zone. In a historic home … less so. War is brewing on one continent and boiling over on another. Kate will have to diffuse international crises, forge strategic alliances in London, and adjust to her new place in the spotlight — all while trying to survive her marriage to fellow career diplomat and political star Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell).”
The show is currently a top-ranked Netflix series in 86 countries. Moreover, the reactions from both critics and viewers have been strong: On IMDb, the show is currently sitting on an 8.2/10 rating — while over at Rotten Tomatoes, there’s a fairly even split between critics and viewers (89% and 85%, respectively).
#2: The Night Agent Season 1
Next up, let’s turn to the #2 Netflix series worldwide this week. It’s The Night Agent, a 10-episode TV series based on Matthew Quirk’s novel of the same name in which a low-level FBI agent named Peter Sutherland works nights in the basement of the White House, manning a phone line for undercover spies that never rings.
One day, however, it does ring, setting into motion a chain of events uncovering a conspiracy that reaches all the way to the Oval Office.
Creator Shawn Ryan has described the series, which stars Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan, as “All The President’s Men with car chases.”
For the 7-day period that ended on April 23, The Night Agent was a Top 10 Netflix series in 88 countries. The show’s viewership has been so strong that five weeks into its run, it’s also now rising higher on another even more impressive Top 10 ranking: The one compiling Netflix’s biggest shows of all time.
That list, which measures total viewership over a show’s first month of streaming availability, currently has the limited series Inventing Anna at the bottom, in 10th place, with 511.9 million hours racked up over its first month. This week, The Night Agent climbed to 5th place (having racked up a grand total of 626.9 million hours viewed since its March 23 debut).
About the story itself: Basso’s Peter is an FBI agent who doesn’t exist as some kind of “unbeatable killing machine,” as Ryan describes him. He’s an underdog rather than a trained assassin. You also get the sense that the young woman he’s trying to protect may or may not make it to the end, and so the story keeps you locked in and, for those of us who read the book, turning the pages.
The novel it’s based on is like one of those pulpy spy novels that airport bookshops and newsstands are filled with, which certainly isn’t meant as a criticism. Hopefully, Netflix will continue to give us more TV along these lines — akin to its other spy and spy-adjacent shows like Kleo and Treason, series that manage to combine great storytelling with a stylized aesthetic and also avoid pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Watch The Night Agent on Netflix
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