"How Are They Doing?" Not Suitable For Work, Cape Fear, Every Year After, Office Romance,
Hulu fails again with a sitcom while Apple soars again with a TV adaptation of an early 1990s movie. Amazon has another OK YA romantic drama. J-Lo performs better globally than in the U.S. on Netflix.
Not Suitable For Work (Hulu): Traditional situation comedies are not a good lane for Hulu, at least based on audience size, but the service has not figured this out, yet it appears. This new single-cam, Friends-ish show created by Mindy Kaling is averaging 800,000 viewers for the first five episodes after 11 days, making it one of the lowest-rated programs on the service since 2005. It is -41% lower than the other sitcom, Mid-Century Modern, which averaged 1.4M viewers and was cancelled after one season. If a renewal decision is going to be based on audience levels, Not Suitable For Work should not return.
Source: Luminate
Cape Fear (Apple): On the other hand, Cape Fear is doing great for Apple. After eight days of viewing, the first three episodes have garnered 3.9M viewers. It is now the #3 Apple TV season since 2024, behind Your Friends & Neighbors S1. This is the second early 1990s movie that Apple has successfully reinvented/rebooted/remade into a TV series, following Presumed Innocent from 2024, which is the program just above it. The movie Presumed Innocent was released in 1990, and the movie Cape Fear in 1991.
Source: Luminate
Every Year After (Amazon): Yet another YA series based on a book on Amazon, this one in the wake of Off Campus. Every Year After is based on writer Carley Fortune’s debut novel and has averaged 1.5M for the binge release after ten days. This is another relatively tepid performance for a drama that has much bigger buzz than audience, such as Heated Rivalry and Off Campus. Every Year After is performing worse than Off Campus, by -42%, so it is really struggling. Even if these dramas are stronger with a younger demo, I do not believe that means nearly as much in streaming as it used to in linear TV (nothing is young on linear TV anymore).
Source: Luminate
Office Romance (Netflix): Jennifer Lopez’s third original movie for Netflix, and her first rom-com, appears to have resonated more outside of the U.S. than inside. Domestically, according to Luminate, the film has averaged 8.9M viewers in its first 15 days, which makes it #30 among original films on the platform since 2025. Worldwide, according to Netflix’s self-reported data, it ranks #17 since 2025 for launch weekend + the first full week. My best guess for this dichotomy is that her male co-star, Brett Goldstein, is a UK homegrown celebrity, which may make the title more appealing in Europe. Or, perhaps, U.S. audiences are tiring a bit of JLo in rom-coms. Or both.
Source: Luminate
