LAUREN Iungerich knows her Netflix show, On My Block, was one of the most-Googled shows in 2018. She knows Netflix included it on a list of most binge-watched shows.
But Iungerich doesn't know how many people watched the coming-of-age comedy, which debuted its third season in March.
"I'm not sure what that audience is, but it feels like our show is important," Iungerich said.
In Hollywood, knowledge is power, and creators who deliver high ratings earn millions. But streaming has upended the old order by allowing companies like Netflix to rope off the viewer data that empowers writers.
In the first quarter, Netflix added nearly 16 million paid subscribers who had nothing but time during the coronavirus pandemic to binge watch Tiger King. With the rise of streaming, creators are unable to answer a very basic question: How many people watch their shows?
On Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, viewer numbers are closely guarded. Nielsen, which for decades guided executives with its ratings estimates, is trying to count viewers on streaming services, but the services have disputed the findings and say that audience size is only one metric they use.
Since 2019, Netflix has started sharing some data with producers, such as the number of households that watch two minutes of one episode of a series and how many watch 90 per cent of one season of a show in the first seven and 28 days.
For some showrunners, the ignorance is bliss. They do their best work without the pressure of ratings. For others, knowing how many people are watching is valuable when negotiating. Which is why some TV people have developed their own highly unscientific methods for determining if their shows have entered the zeitgeist.
Before releasing No Good Nick last year, Netflix executives told co-creators David Steinberg and Keetgi Kogan that they wouldn't give them viewer numbers.
Steinberg and Kogan saw Twitter as a proxy for how the show was doing. Steinberg spent almost every day retweeting nice things that people said about the show and resisting the urge to argue with critics. He deduced that No Good Nick was perhaps popular in Brazil because he saw numerous tweets in Portuguese.
The only thing that mattered was whether the show got renewed, but Netflix decided against season two.
"There's a decision made, and it's a bit of mystery," Steinberg said. "You're better off not overthinking it because you can drive yourself crazy."
On flights, writer-creator Steven Conrad would sometimes look around to see if anyone was watching his Amazon series, Patriot. The show, about an intelligence officer who goes undercover at a Milwaukee pipe company, began in 2015.
Amazon occasionally gave him feedback - a scene needed more action or the pace needed to be faster - but that was about it. Keeping show creators in the dark about viewership gives streaming services "a massive advantage," Conrad said.
"They can manipulate the show under the argument it's what audiences want." TV critics gave Patriot good reviews. But even the headlines suggested the show had flown under the radar. Amazon executives didn't share viewer numbers but they dropped hints that Patriot wouldn't get a third season.
"They intimated that it would be a good idea to have a story that wrapped up a little bit," Conrad said.
TV ratings "have a toxic effect on creativity," said Victor Fresco, whose TV work includes producing Mad About You and Better Off Ted.
In 2017, he created Santa Clarita Diet, a Netflix comedy starring Drew Barrymore. "I loved not getting numbers each week," said Fresco, whose show ran for three seasons. Executives held calls with him, offering up data like whether the show was popular in certain regions. But he listened closely to the tone of their voices.
"You can tell a good phone call from a bad phone call," he said.
Creators, he says, need to forget the old path to riches: generating five seasons' worth of good ratings on broadcast or cable so that the show gets syndicated. Netflix may cancel a show after one season not because it's unpopular, but because it costs too much or doesn't generate new subscribers.
"Now you have to assume your show will go three or maybe four years - if it's successful and not too expensive - then you move on to something else," Fresco said. "It's a different model that we have to adapt to."
Tribune News Service
