Is this enough to get a smile out of Wednesday Addams? The return of the Addams Family spinoff series “Wednesday” starring Jenna Ortega is still a hit, notching 50 million views on Netflix in its first week on the service and easily hitting No. 1 on the Top 10 charts globally.
The show’s 50 million views is right in line with what Season 1 did when it debuted way back in November 2022 with 50.1 million views. At the time though, Netflix tracked hours watched rather than “views,” so “Wednesday” Season 1 topped the list with 341.2 million hours viewed, and that was with Netflix dropping all eight episodes of Season 1 at once. For Season 2, it’s been split into two parts, with Part 2 debuting September 3, so expect another huge viewership boost for Season 2 a month from now.
Related Stories
So though it’s a few thousand shy of the first season, “Wednesday” Season 2 is effectively the biggest debut for an English-language Netflix series ever. For comparison, Season 2 of “Squid Game” debuted with a whopping 68 million views and holds the record, but it even beat out Season 3 from earlier this summer, which had only 46.3 million views in its first week. The show also set another record, reaching No. 1 in 91 different countries, which again is the most for an English-language TV series.
The first season of “Wednesday” returned to the Netflix charts this week as well and landed at No. 2 for the week with 8.6 million views. It’s now been in the Top 10 for a whopping 22 weeks, and it is Netflix’s most popular English series ever with 252.1 million views in its first 91 days of release. Splitting Season 2 into two parts could be a good way of creating a spark of new viewers midway through its run, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it managed to approach or surpass Season 1 as the biggest Netflix series ever.
Ortega returned as Wednesday Addams for another murder mystery at her boarding school Nevermore, where she now is investigating a string of killings by a murder of crows, as well as a stalker who wants Wednesday dead as well. Tim Burton returned to direct two episodes of the series created by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough.
Our critic was irked not just by the season being split into two halves after a delay of three years between seasons, but also by what he likened to a rudimentary and mundane murder mystery.
Check out the full Netflix Top 10 list here.
