For the first time in more than a month, Samba’s Weekly Wrap Report has a new streaming leader. Netflix’s “Monster” rose from second place to No. 1 with its current season, “The Lizzie Borden Story,” a fictionalized account of the 1890s Massachusetts woman accused of killing her parents with an ax. The report, based on Samba’s U.S. Census-balanced panel of more than 3 million households, tracks both streaming and linear viewing.
The timing lines up with Halloween, but the chart movement is the more important signal: a title that climbs in week two is showing repeat viewing, not just launch-week sampling.
Amazon’s Reacher universe holds without new episodes
Amazon Prime Video’s “Neagley” held second place. The private-investigator series is a spinoff of “Reacher,” which had occupied the top spot for six consecutive weeks before stepping aside this week. “Reacher” still appears at No. 9 even though its fourth season ended the previous week, and the full first season of “Neagley” was added to Amazon on Sept. 16. That means both Prime Video titles are charting on library viewing alone, with no fresh episodes to lift them. For a franchise strategy, that is a strong sign of staying power.
Netflix stacks true crime at the top
Netflix also claimed third place with “Unabomber,” the biographical film about Ted Kaczynski whose cast includes Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis and Shailene Woodley. With “Monster” and “Unabomber” in the top three, Netflix is effectively running adjacent true-crime titles against each other, and both are holding. “Special Ops: Lioness” landed fourth after its third-season finale; the Paramount+ series remains one of the platform’s biggest hits but has not yet been renewed for a fourth season.
Amazon’s new romcom “The Love Hypothesis” debuted fifth. It adapts a popular romance novel that started as Star Wars fanfiction. Further down, Netflix’s “A Different World” debuted sixth, Paramount+’s “Mobland” moved up to seventh, Netflix’s Wonka reality competition “Wonka’s the Golden Ticket” took eighth, and HBO Max’s “Lanterns” slipped to tenth after its penultimate episode.
Linear TV gets crowded again
On the linear side, “The Voice” returned to NBC for its 30th season and placed three episodes on the chart, with the highest at second. That pushed “Dancing With the Stars” down one spot to third. “America’s Got Talent” finished its 21st season with a two-part finale landing at fourth and eighth, while “Big Brother” is down to its final three contestants in fifth, “Saturday Night Live” returned for its 52nd season, and “Wheel of Fortune” closed the chart in tenth.
What the chart tells media planners
- Week-two movement beats opening rank: “Monster” improved from No. 2 to No. 1, which signals repeat audience behavior.
- Library can carry a franchise: “Neagley” and “Reacher” both charted without new episodes.
- Adjacent programming can coexist: Netflix’s two true-crime titles took two of the top three slots.
- Linear competition clusters are back: “The Voice,” “AGT” and “DWTS” are all sharing a crowded broadcast window.
Source: TheWrap
