‘Better Call Saul’ Leads Quiet Week, But Streaming Makes Noise With New Record Share Of Viewing In April, Nielsen Says

Better Call Saul captured the top spot on a sleepy week, collecting 821 million minutes of viewing for its first five seasons on Netflix.

Along with the rankings for the week of April 18 to 24, Nielsen also released the April edition of The Gauge, its monthly look at overall viewing via TV sets. Helped by an upswing for HBO Max, overall streaming set a new record for the month in terms of its share of total viewing, at 30.4%, up from 29.7% in March. For the first time, HBO Max reached 1% of the viewership pie, a long way from Netflix’s 6.6% but a mark of achievement for the 2-year-old service.

Breaking Bad, the series from which Better Call Saul spun off, is also one of the most popular acquired titles on Netflix. Both shows draw audiences that are 55% male, per Nielsen, but 75% of Saul viewers are older than 35. By contrast, half of Breaking Bad viewers are younger than 35.

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Sampling of past seasons was helped by promotions for Season 6, which just wrapped up on AMC and AMC+.

In keeping with typical patterns, total TV view time dropped 2.1% from March, but time spent streaming held steady.

Broadcast and cable TV saw viewership drop by 3% and 2.5%, respectively. Nielsen chalked up the broadcast downturn to a reduction in drama watching and a 38% drop in sports viewing. The cable drop reflected a nearly 17% decline in news viewing. On the plus side, sports posted a 17% increase on cable, fueled by the viewing of the NBA and the NCAA men’s basketball championship, which aired across TBS, TNT and TruTV .

Below is the weekly streaming Top 10. Unless otherwise noted, all titles are on Netflix.

Better Call Saul – 50 episodes, 821 million minutes of viewing
Bridgerton – 16 eps., 734M min.
Cocomelon – 18 eps., 730M min.
Anatomy Of A Scandal – 6 eps., 690M min.
The John Wayne Gacy Tapes – 3 eps., 684M min.
Heartland – 225 eps., 631M min.
Moon Knight (Disney+) – 4 eps., 630M min.
NCIS – 355 eps., 617M min.
Criminal Minds – 321 eps., 614M min.
The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On – 10 eps., 482M min.

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