How the Hell Is ‘Wednesday’ So Freaking Popular?
The Addams house might be a museum, but basically everyone in the world has come to see ’em. At least, a whole lot of people have watched Wednesday, Netflix and Tim Burton’s dark comedy inspired by The Addams Family. This week, the series became the streamer’s second most popular English language series, behind only Stranger Things Season 4. The pigtail braid enthusiast might’ve built her brand as an outcast, but now it seems she’s the belle of the ball—or, in this show’s case, “Rave’N Dance.”
Once again, it seems algorithmic thinking has paid off. Wednesday might not be the most original idea, or even the most innovative adaptation, but it has all the ingredients of a Netflix success story: a big name (Tim Burton), attached to a well known property (Addams Family), executed with a buzzy star at its center. (In this case, Jenna Ortega, fresh off her turns in this year’s Scream and Ti West’s X.)
In fact, Wednesday might be even more popular than Netflix’s ranking system indicates. As Variety notes, the platform chooses its “Most Popular” selections by tracking viewership hours during the first 28 days that programs become available. Stranger Things 4, which has a longer running time than Wednesday, has readily won by that metric. But if you measure by number of households who’ve tuned in, Variety reports, Wednesday already has those bowl cut kids beat.