‘Outer Banks’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show

Outer Banks season 3 had its time in the sun, but a new, controversial show has arrived to unseat it in Netflix’s top 10 list. It’s not a traditional series, but rather the Chris Rock comedy special Selective Outrage, which was recorded live during its Netflix debut this past week.

I am a little bit surprised they’re classifying the singular, one hour set as a show, rather than putting it in the movie category, but I suppose you could consider it a TV “special” the way we used to have on…actual TV, hence its appearance here.

It seems everyone tuned in in order to see Chris Rock finally address being slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars, and he did in fact close the show by tearing into both Will and Jada as brutally as you might imagine. The show has only a 50% score from critics but a higher 85% from audiences. But being a one hour comedy special, most people will watch it and move on, and as such, I do not think it has long as the top series here.

One thing on the list has surprised me over the past week, which is the second season of Sex/Life. The series debuted a week or so ago, but has not been able to pass Outer Banks, despite the first season drawing really huge viewership for Netflix with its steamy storylines and constant nudity. Season 3 has yet to rise above #3 on the Top 10 list, though again, without the context of actual numbers, it may be doing fine, and it’s just that Selective Outrage and Outer Banks are doing massive numbers. All signs did point to this season of Outer Banks being a hugely viewed outing, as Netflix took the unusual step of pre-renewing it for season 4 before season 3 came out, indicating a large amount of confidence in the series.

Sex/Life, meanwhile, is a show that everyone allegedly “hates” with a 21% critic score and 37% audience score for season 1 (up to 56% for season 2), but everyone did at least watch season 1. Sex/Life previously had one of the longest streaks ever at #1 on Netflix with 31 days in the top spot. But season 2 can’t even reach #1 in its debut week? Something does seem to be wrong here.

The rest of the list is uninteresting, filled with Netflix reality shows like Next in Fashion, Perfect Match and Married at First Sight, which do not need to top the list to be renewed because they’re so cheap to make. One strange success story this year is New Amsterdam, one of Netflix’s remaining licensed partners, which remains in the top 10 after weeks when new seasons were added to the service.

So yes, I expect Selective Outrage to drop fast, but is Sex/Life ever going to pick up steam? We’ll find out eventually.

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