Netflix‘s Roast of Tom Brady got loads of press coverage but a different live special from the streamer’s Netflix Is a Joke festival racked up more views over the weekend.
Katt Williams: Woke Foke, which streamed live on Saturday, May 4, earned 4 million views (determined by total viewing time divided by running time) worldwide, according to Netflix’s internal measurement for April 29-May 5. That’s double the 2 million for the Brady roast, albeit with an extra day for users to watch as the roast streamed Sunday evening. The roast had more total viewing time at 6.2 million hours, to 4.1 million hours for Williams’ special — but it was also almost three times as long as Woke Foke.
That both specials made the global top 10, however, is testament to Netflix’s growing capacity to host live events. The streamer’s first live stand-up special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, finished outside the worldwide top 10 for its debut in March 2023 (when Netflix ranked shows by total time watched rather than views).
Woke Foke also scored higher in the United States than The Roast of Tom Brady, finishing second among U.S. Netflix users, while the roast ranked fifth for the week. A third Netflix Is a Joke special, John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A., also made the U.S. top 10 with its first installment (additional episodes will stream this week). Netflix doesn’t break out views or viewing time by country.
Baby Reindeer remained at No. 1 in Netlfix’s English-language TV rankings for the third consecutive week, scoring 18.6 million views. Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts origin story Unfrosted topped the English-language films list with 7.1 million views for its opening weekend. On the non-English language lists, Spain’s The Asunta Case led the series rankings with 11.9 million views, and Kuwaiti rom-com Honeymoonish was No. 1 among movies with 14 million views.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
