For the first time ever, PBS made its way into Nielsen’s top 10 streaming list, thanks to Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” documentary series.
As “The American Revolution” aired nightly on PBS from Nov. 16 to Nov. 21, the six-part documentary series logged 565 million minutes during the week of Nov. 17 across PBS and Prime Video, boosting the show to land as the No. 10 most-watched streaming acquired title.
According to Nielsen, viewing was fueled by adults 65+, with the demographic making up 59% of the audience. Though the documentary series was available on multiple streaming services, including Prime Video, the largest share of viewing came from PBS’ streaming platform.
In this case, the six-night viewing event likely fueled the surge of viewers within the one week, as compared to a staggered release that might release just one episode weekly. Each episode aired from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET, and all episodes are available to stream with no cost on both PBS.org and on the PBS App.
The acquired streaming list is usually made up of linear favorites that continue to have a life on streaming, with this week’s list including “Grey’s Anatomy,” which was the week’s most-watched acquired streaming program with 805 million viewing minutes, as well as “NCIS” with 755 million minutes, “Law & Order” with 710 million minutes and “Bluey” with 674 million minutes. Other titles on the list were “Gunsmoke,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “Paw Patrol” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
Co-directed by Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt and written by Geoffrey C. Ward, “The American Revolution” examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down, exploring how 13 British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe.
To accompany the series, PBS also launched a one-hour special titled “A More Perfect Union,” which features a conversation between Burns, Botstein and other experts in the field centering on America’s founding and how the ideas and values articulated 250 years ago remain relevant to conversations about governance today.
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