Ryan Murphy Dominates Netflix Top 10: ‘The Watcher’ Debuts at No. 1, Dahmer Series ‘Monster’ Shifts to No. 2

Selome Hailu
·4 min read
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It’s a good week for Ryan Murphy.

Now on the fourth year of his five-year Netflix deal, he’s just had the streamer’s most-watched title of the week for four weeks in a row. For the previous three weeks, it was “Monster,” the limited series starring Evan Peters as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, which has now shifted to the No. 2 position.

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At the top of the chart for the Oct. 10-16 viewing window is “The Watcher,” Murphy’s limited series that racked up a chart-topping 125 million hours watched in its first four days of availability. The mystery thriller, co-created with Ian Brennan and adapted from a true story originally told in a 2018 New York magazine story, stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Canavale as a married couple being stalked.

In its third week of availability, “Monster” was watched for 122.8 million hours. The series is now at a total of 824.2 million viewing hours since its Sept. 21 premiere, and stands as the second most-watched English-language Netflix has ever had, second only to Season 4 of “Stranger Things.” It reached that status last week when it crossed 701.4 million hours viewed. (Netflix compiles its “Most Popular” chart by measuring a title’s viewership in its first 28 days on the streamer.)

When compared to non-English language titles, “Monster” is also behind “Squid Game,” which reached 1.7 billion viewing hours back in 2021, but between last week and this week, “Monster” passed Part 5 of “Money Heist,” which is Netflix’s second most-watched Non-English TV title ever with 792.2 million hours. Therefore, when comparing all Netflix series regardless of language, the Top 5 is now “Squid Game,” followed by “Stranger Things” Season 4, then “Monster,” then “Money Heist” Part 5, then “Bridgerton” Season 2.

Murphy has one other title on this week’s Netflix Top 10: “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” which was No. 4 on the English-language movies chart with 20.1 million hours watched in its first full week of availability, down from second place with 35.4 million hours during the Oct. 3-9 viewing window, when it was available for five days.

No other title on the English TV chart came even remotely close to the success of “The Watcher” and “Monster,” but in third place was Season 1 of “The Midnight Club” with 49.9 million hours watched in its first full week of availability. This is a bump from its first three days of availability, when it appeared as No. 4 with 18.8 million hours watched.

Fourth place went to another study of Dahmer, the limited unscripted series “Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which was watched for 27.7 million hours in its first full week of availability — a drop from last week, when it was the No. 2 title with 31.4 million hours watched.

“Dynasty” Season 5 remains on the Top 10 for an impressive four weeks, having concluded its run on the CW on Sept. 16 and arrived on Netflix on Sept. 24. Its performance is a continued indicator that while the CW consistently comes in last place in terms of broadcast ratings, its shows (some of them recently canceled, like “Dynasty”) are well suited to a streaming audience. It was watched for 18.2 million hours from Oct. 10 to 16, landing in fifth place.

Netflix’s new animated children’s comedy “Oddballs” premiered on Oct. 7 and made its chart debut during the Oct. 10-16 viewing window, its first full week of availability. The series, adapted from YouTube channel TheOdd1sOut, took the No. 6 position with 11.9 million hours watched.

Season 9 of “The Blacklist” was watched for 11.8 million hours during its first week of availability on Netflix, where it arrived on Oct. 9 after concluding on NBC in May. It took seventh place followed by Season 3 of “Bling Empire” at No. 8 with 10.6 million hours watched in its first full week of streaming. “Fate: The Winx Saga” Season 2 had its fifth week on the Netflix Top 10 this week with 9.7 million hours viewed, landing at No. 9.

In last place on the TV Top 10 was Season 1 of “The Mole,” which was watched for 9.6 million hours during this viewing window. A revival of ABC’s reality series of the same name which ran from 2001 to 2008, “The Mole” is continuing to roll out episodes incrementally.

See Netflix’s Top 10 lists for the week of Oct. 10-16 below, beginning with English-language series and followed by non-English-language TV shows, English-language movies and then non-English-language movies.

VIP+ Analysis: Does Murphy’s Output Justify His Monster Deal?

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