6 streaming TV shows that made their mark in 2022

It was a big year for streaming, with streaming viewership overtaking broadcast and cable TV for the first time this summer. While it’s easy to get lost in the drama of the data (it’s like “Survivor,” but with numbers!), the bottom line is that platforms have never put as many resources behind their streaming content as they did in 2022 (and many took financial hits as a result). Whether Galadriel hunting the dark forces of Middle Earth or Wednesday Addams unleashing piranhas in the school pool tickle your binge-able TV fancy, these are some of the top streaming shows that made their mark on the past year: Ad Age Year in Review 2022 The year's biggest news, trends and takeaways Click here 6. “Abbott Elementary” (ABC, via Hulu) One of linear TV’s newest darlings came back this year—with a streaming surprise. Season two of “Abbott Elementary” premiered Sept. 21 on ABC, streaming next-day on Hulu. According to Nielsen, its premiere was viewed by an audience of 2.9 million, which was on par with numbers for its first season. But streaming had other plans. After one week, viewership increased to seven million, and after one month, it was 10.4 million. ABC attributes the spike in audience to multi-platform viewing, which likely includes data from DVR devices in addition to streaming—but a victory for Hulu nonetheless. The season two premiere of “Abbott Elementary” now holds the record for the largest delayed-viewing increase for any ABC comedy. 5. “Thursday Night Football” (Amazon Prime) One small step for Amazon, one giant leap for streaming-kind. This year, Amazon took the plunge when it began exclusively streaming “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon Prime. Streaming sports has been a hot topic in TV as the category remains a major linear TV holdout, so all eyes were on Amazon as it became the first to take an NFL night fully digital. Amazon’s 15-game season concludes on Dec. 29, and across its first 10 weeks, the streamer has averaged 4.9 million viewers aged 18-49 per game, according to Nielsen. The figure is a 1% increase from last year’s viewership across Fox, the NFL Network and Prime Video. The platform’s top brag is pulling a younger audience, reporting a 21% increase in viewers aged 18 to 34 over the previous year in its first ten games. 4. “Euphoria” (HBO, via HBO Max) The long-awaited second season of HBO’s teen drama “Euphoria” aired in early 2022 on HBO, streaming simultaneously on HBO Max. The show’s season two premiere pulled in more than 14 million viewers in its first month and the season went on to average an audience of 16 million per episode, double that of its first season, according to Warner Bros. Discovery. The show has been renewed for a third season. “Euphoria” also dominated social media. At the time, Twitter announced the show as its most-tweeted-about show of the decade, with over 30 million tweets leading up to the season’s finale. In its 2022 end-of-year report, Giphy crowned a moment from “Euphoria,” in which main character Rue (played by Zendaya) tearfully says “Thank you,” the most-used GIF of the year. Multiple other moments, like Cassie Howard’s (Sydney Sweeney) “I have never, ever been happier” speech and a scene in which she fearfully lies in a bathtub, became frequent meme subjects. me when the doordash person knocks instead of just leaving the food there pic.twitter.com/A6DYunb0QJ— a (@aallleeexxxxxx1) January 12, 2022 3. “The Bear” (FX, via Hulu) The only wholly original, non-IP -related entrant on this list is FX’s “The Bear,” which seemed to appear out of nowhere in late June and quickly became the “you have to watch” show of the season. The thrilling and decidedly stressful show about a chef returning to his hometown to run the family sandwich shop holds a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. A second season is set for 2023, promising the return of “Yes, chef” to the Twitter trending charts. Ad Age's Marketers of the Year The 10 marketers that broke through in 2022 See the full list here 2. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Amazon Prime) vs. “The House of the Dragon (HBO Max) Perhaps more fierce than any clash with orcs or royals was the faceoff between Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and HBO Max’s “The House of the Dragon,” both of which aired weekly during September. Both series are prequels to extremely popular franchises (“The Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones,” respectively) and came with sky-high production price tags: “House of the Dragon” reportedly cost approximately $200 million ($20 million per episode) and “Rings of Power” racked up a bill of nearly $500 million for its first season (the streamer is locked in for five). Nearly 10 million viewers tuned in for the premiere of “House of the Dragon” on its first night, while Amazon reported 25 million global viewers for the “Rings of Power” two-episode premiere on its first day, according to HBO. The first seasons of each show combined made up 18 billion minutes of viewing, with “House of the Dragon” responsible for 9.6 billion minutes compared to 8.6 billion for “Rings of Power," according to Nielsen. ok so should I watch the one with the elves or the one with the dragons— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) October 5, 2022 1. “Stranger Things” (Netflix) vs. “Wednesday” (Netflix) Streaming juggernaut Netflix’s signature show “Stranger Things” was an inescapable force in 2022. The series’ fourth season, which premiered in two parts this summer, quickly became the platform’s most-watched English-language show of the year at 1.35 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days on the service (2021’s “Squid Game” still holds the top spot overall at 1.65 billion), according to Netflix. The cultural grip of “Stranger Things 4” was immense—including the astonishing revival of Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God),” which became a viral sound on TikTok (used in over 3 million videos as of writing) alongside the sinister chime of Vecna’s clock (nearly 450,000 videos). But a late-hour threat has emerged to challenge the “Stranger Things” record—and the call is coming from inside the house. Netflix announced in November that its Tim Burton series “Wednesday,” a “The Addams Family” spin-off centered around the clan’s sadistic daughter, surpassed “Stranger Things” in hours viewed in a single week for its English-language TV category. “Wednesday” clocked over 341 million hours viewed in its first week compared to 335 million hours for “Stranger Things.” Netflix’s in-house metrics also found that over 50 million households had tuned in for “Wednesday.” Read more: Inside Netflix's viral ‘Wednesday’ marketing strategy “Wednesday” has continued breaking its own records, clocking in more than 411 million hours viewed in its second week, making it Netflix’s third most-watched English show, just trailing “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” Speaking at a December investor conference, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos declared the show “is chasing Squid Game right now to be one of the most watched shows in the world.” A ravenous fandom has developed around the morose, pig-tailed heroine that may hold the strength to tip the scales from Netflix’s mainstay “Stranger Things” (“Wednesday” premiered on Nov. 23, so we won’t have a first-28-days total until late December). Stay tuned. Ad Age Year in Review 2022 The year's biggest news, trends and takeaways Click here

6 streaming TV shows that made their mark in 2022

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