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Ranking 14 Stand-Up Comedians Based on the Popularity of their Netflix Specials

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 13, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 13, 2023 |


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Yesterday, Netflix upped its transparency game and released a ton of new viewership data. The streaming service promised that every six months, it would release the number of hours watched for the previous six-month period for nearly every one of its titles, original or licensed. The first report lists how many hours viewers watched over 18,000 titles between January and June 2023.

Yes, we’re greedy, and we’d still love even more transparency, but this is considerably more than any other streamer has provided, and I am curious as to how it will shake out for both writers and actors. The Night Agent, for instance, was far and away the most popular title in the first six months of the year. Does that mean that the relatively unknown star of the series, Gabriel Basso, can ask for more money, or does that mean that Netflix gains some leverage by arguing that their platform offers more exposure — and therefore star power — than any other streamer to young actors. Look what Netflix did for the stars of Stranger Things and Bridgerton, for instance.

There’s definitely some pull now for Netflix, which can boast that an indie director like Todd Haynes can make a movie like May December that’s been seen by more people on Netflix than all of Haynes’ previous movies combined have been seen in theaters (this is not a made-up stat; Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said as much).

The numbers seem to back it up. For instance, Scott Cooper’s Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale, was a decent arthouse-type film that accumulated 120 million hours watched — that movie is 2 hours long, which means that it was seen by the equivalent of 60 million viewers (give or take rewatches and half watches, etc.). The biggest movie of all time, Avatar, sold 300 million tickets. Does that mean that Pale Blue Eyes — a movie no one really remembers — is 1/5th as popular as Avatar? Absolutely not. But it illustrates just how far the reach of Netflix is. Fifty or sixty million people half-watched that movie while playing Candy Crush on their phones!

Interestingly, the most popular movie of the first half of the year on Netflix was J. Lo’s The Mother, which accumulated 250 million hours watched. That movie was 2 hours long, so it was half-watched by about 120 million people compared to, again, the 300 million Avatar ticket buyers. Insane. For the record, the top five movies of the first half of the year were: The Mother, Extraction 2, You People, Murder Mystery 2, and Your Place or Mine. Honestly, that’s mostly depressing.

There’s a lot to glean from the numbers, and I’m sure that many will. For now, though, I’ve always been interested in just how popular those Netflix stand-up specials are. The answer is: Pretty popular. Here’s a ranking of the stand-up specials released in the first half of the year:

1. Chris Rock, “Selective Outrage” (36 million hours)
2. John Mulaney, “Baby J” (11.9 million)
3. Whindersson Nunes, “Preaching to the Choir” (11.5 million)
4. Bart Kreischer, “Razzle Dazzle” (8.3 million)
5. Leanne Morgan, “I’m Every Woman” (6.7 million)
6. Jim Jefferies, “High & Dry” (5.8 million)
7. Wanda Sykes, “I’m an Entertainer” (3.9 million)
8. Andrew Santino, “Cheeseburger” (3.8 million)
9. Amy Schumer, “Emergency Contact” (3.2 million)
10. Sommore, “Queen Chandelier” (3.2 million)
11. Tom Segura, “Ball Hog” (1.6 million)
12. Mae Martin, “SAP” (1.5 million)
13. Hannah Gadsby, “Something Special” (1.4 million)
14. Celeste Barber, “Fine Thanks” (1.2 million)

You have to figure that stand-up specials are around an hour, which means that around 36 million people watched Chris Rocks’ heavily promoted live special, which is more than any regular season NFL game. John Mulaney’s special was seen by more than people than watch an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” As ranking stand-up comedians go, however, this mostly checks out the way I assumed it might, except for Whindersson Nunes, a Brazilian comic I’ve never heard of.

Schumer also may not be as popular as she thinks, although, to be fair, her special was released in mid-June, so 3.2 million hours only accounts for two weeks of viewing. Likewise, Netflix may ask Hannah Gadsby — who made her name on Netflix with her “Nanette” special — to lower her asking price.