By Sonya Davidson
Interesting, and entertaining, research has recently been unveiled by Netflix marking when members globally became hooked on their popular shows. The entertainment service provider analyzed it's global streaming data across the inaugural seasons of some of the most popular shows.
This included both Netflix original series and shows that premiered on other networks. Why? They were looking for signals and trends as to when viewers became hooked and fandom emerged. It turns out that 70% of viewers who watched an episode that hooked them, there was no turning back. That is, they went on to complete the season...or the point of no return.
I can tell you as a self-professed Netflix addict, moments where there was no turning back. In The 100 it pretty much started right away with the concept of teenagers being sent back to earth to see if it's inhabitable. Their first experience of fresh air and greenery was enough to hook me. Twice.
It's interesting to note the episode that hooks viewers are relatively consistent around the world, slight geographic difference were noted. The Dutch, for instance, tend to fall in love with a series the fastest and appeared to get hooked one episode ahead of most countries. Germans showed early fandom for Arrow and France fell first for How I Met Your Mother. In Better Call Saul, Jimmy McGill won Brazilians over one episode quicker than those living in Mexico. And Australian viewers prove to hold out longer across the board getting hooked one to two episodes later than the rest of the world almost in very show. Despite these differences, Netlfix tells us the hooked moment had no correlation to audience size or attrition, regardless of show, episode number or country.
The data in this research was pulled from accounts who started watching season one of the selected series between January 2015 - July 2015 in Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK and US and between April 2015 - July 2015 for Australia and New Zealand. A hooked episode was defined when 70% of viewers who watched that episode went on to complete season one. Hooked episodes were first identified by country, then averaged to create the global hooked episode.