Netflix’s Split Seasons: How ‘Emily In Paris,’ ‘The Crown,’ and More Are Faring

If you take a closer look at the data provided by the streaming service, you will notice that fewer episodes to begin with represent less time spent with a particular season. However, this method can also be helpful with the preferred view measure.
With a total of 62.3 million hours of viewing throughout the globe, the fourth season of the young adult drama Outer Banks on Netflix made its debut at the top of the streaming service’s television charts for the week of October 7. The performance was impressive, especially when one considers that it was just for a half season. This was in line with Netflix’s policy of dividing some of its more popular scripted episodes into two halves and releasing them approximately one month apart.
Nevertheless, here’s the catch: When compared to the opening week for the third season of Outer Banks, which had just under 155 million hours for a full-season binge release, the number of hours that Outer Banks was viewed was around sixty percent lower, at 62.3 million. There are several prominent Netflix series that have recently broken their most recent seasons into multiple parts, and they all follow a pattern that is very similar: Even when the remaining episodes have been broadcast, the amount of time spent with a particular season is reduced when there are fewer episodes to begin with.
According to the findings of a study conducted by The Hollywood Reporter, four of the five major series that had split releases remained in the top 10 rankings on Netflix for a longer period of time than their most recent binge-released seasons. These four seasons are You season four, The Witcher season three, The Crown season six, and Emily in Paris season four. At eleven weeks, the fifth season of Bridgerton, which was the third season, was just as long as the second season. Bridgerton was also an outlier in terms of viewing time, surpassing season two in both that measure (846.5 million hours over 13 weeks versus 797.2 million hours for season two) and Netflix’s preferred view metric (total viewing time divided by running time), where season three ranks sixth all-time for Netflix English-language series and season two ranks tenth. Bridgerton was a remarkable achievement in terms of viewing time.

A longer period of viewer involvement, on the other hand, may result in an increase in the number of views. In just four weeks, the first half of Emily in Paris season four, which had a run length of a little under three hours, amassed a total of 45.1 million views across the globe. This number increased to 27.5 million once the remaining episodes of the season were removed, bringing the total number of views to about six hours. Despite having a somewhat shorter run time and around 9 million more viewing hours, this surpasses the approximately 54.6 million views that season three received over the course of six weeks in the top 10 of the charts.

It was not as successful for the third season of The Witcher, which ended up with 57.8 million views over eight weeks in the top 10, which is a decrease from the 67.2 million views over six weeks that the second season received when it was published in a binge video format. In comparison to the decrease in viewing hours (37 percent, based on top 10 weeks), the decrease in the number of views was only 17 percent, which is a lesser gap than the decline in viewing hours. There was a significant gap between the two seasons, therefore splitting the season was helpful in terms of views; nonetheless, it was not enough to completely close the gap.
In addition, while determining the rankings of its all-time top 10, Netflix takes into account the number of views that a film has received throughout the first 91 days (13 weeks) after it has been released. Netflix, on the other hand, calculates the total number of views for divided seasons by first adding up the total amount of time spent watching each segment over the course of its respective 91 days, and then dividing that total by the total amount of time the season has been broadcast.

At the time of publication, there is just one week of data available for the second half of the fourth season of Outer Banks for the television show. Part one was watched for a total of 122.7 hours over the course of four weeks, while the entire season was watched for 77.1 million hours during the week when part two was made available to the public. Some of these hours can be divided between the totals and view counts of each half. Season four had a total of little under 200 million hours of viewing, which is much lower than the 341.4 million hours that were viewed during the same time period for season three. As a result of the fact that both portions are now accruing watch time and views, the thirteen-week view count for season four has a good probability of being higher than that of season three. Netflix’s primary measure is views, thus that is the one that is taken into consideration.