‘Ratched’: Netflix Says 48M People Saw Sarah Paulson Drama, Making It Streamer’s Top New Original In 2020

Peter White
·2 min read

Netflix has revealed that 48M people have checked in to Lucia State Hospital to make Sarah Paulson-fronted drama Ratched the streamer’s best new original launch of the year.

The SVOD service revealed the numbers on social media saying that the Ryan Murphy-exec produced drama hit the 48M mark over its first 28 days to make it the “biggest original season one of the year”.

It is the latest example of Netflix sharing viewing data in success. Last year, it revealed figures for series including You, Sex Education, The Umbrella Academy, Elite and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.

It said that Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s UCP-produced comic book adaptation of Umbrella Academy was watched by 45 million households in its first month, while serial killer thriller You and British comedy drama Sex Education both hit 40M. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, about the controversial music festival, was watched by over 20 million subscribers and Spanish drama Elite had been seen by a similar amount.

Ratched, which launched in September, is a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest origin series starring Paulson as Mildred Ratched. It starts in 1947, when Mildred arrives in Northern California to seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind. On a clandestine mission, Mildred presents herself as the perfect image of what a dedicated nurse should be, but the wheels are always turning and as she begins to infiltrate the mental health care system and those within it, Mildred’s stylish exterior belies a growing darkness that has long been smoldering within, revealing that true monsters are made, not born.

Created by Evan Romansky, Ratched was inspired by the beloved 1976 film. In addition to Paulson it also stars Cynthia Nixon as Gwendolyn Briggs, Judy Davis as Nurse Betsy Bucket, Sharon Stone as Lenore Osgood, Jon Jon Briones as Dr. Richard Hanover, Finn Wittrock as Edmund Tolleson, Charlie Carver as Huck, Alice Englert as Dolly, Amanda Plummer as Louise, Corey Stoll as Charles Wainwright, Sophie Okonedo as Charlotte Wells, Brandon Flynn as Henry Osgood and Vincent D’Onofrio as Gov. George Wilburn.

Ratched comes from Murphy and Ian Brennan and executive produced by the film’s producer Michael Douglas. Paulson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Aleen Keshishian, Jacob Epstein, Jennifer Salt, Margaret Riley, Robert Mitas and Tim Minear also exec produce.

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