"How Are They Doing"? The Pitt, Beast Games, Tell Me Lies, Starfleet Academy, His & Hers, The Rip

The Pitt is the true HBO Max hit; Beast Games loses viewers each week; Tell Me Lies grows; the latest Star Trek opens decently; His and Hers' twists stokes viewership; The Rip underperforms (IMHO).

(All data is domestic (Luminate) or global views (Netflix) / average audience as noted for the specified time frame)

The Pitt On HBO Max: For all the talk about Heated Rivalry the real superstar and growth story of HBO Max is The Pitt which, at the start of S2, has become the show’s most watched and clear flagship original program; the one its waited 5.5 years to create (HBO Max launched May 2020) and the one that sets the template for future development. This commentary excludes HBO linear originals that simulcast on Max but which are not HBO Max exclusives.

The first two episodes of the second season have averaged 8.6M viewers for the first seven days of viewing, dwarfing all other exclusive shows on the platform, as depicted in the first chart below, and more than double both the full season and first two episodes of S1.

The second table contains day 1-7 of viewing for each episode of The Pitt for S1 and S2 and also for Heated Rivalry. The Pitt grew organically throughout most of the 15 episodes, peaking at 5.6M for the season finale. Both of the first two episodes of S1 and S2 have performed well above all episodes of season 1 but remained steady with each other at 8.6M, a sign that it has now found its full audience.

Heated Rivalry demonstrated a sharper growth curve but at significantly smaller levels, which in and of itself allows for a steeper growth rate on a percentage basis.

One notable wrinkle regarding The Pitt is that MAX’s success with original scripted series should be coming from Warner’s rich, legacy IP. However, whether or not The Pitt is part of that library is at issue in a major ongoing lawsuit where the estate of ER creator Michael Crichton is suing Warner over the allegation that it is an ER rip-off. Clearly the DNA and braintrust of ER is why The Pitt is so good but it has enough significant differences to separate itself from ER.

Source: Luminate. Straight average. (Note: The Pitt S2 = E1 & E2 only. All other shows are full season. Hacks S4 excludes E2 and E3 due to data limitations ). Heated Rivalry included even though it is technically an acquisition.

Source: Luminate

Beast Games on Amazon Prime: S2 of Amazon’s only true success in unscripted has performed on par S1 but that stability is masking a problem. The first four episodes of S2 have averaged 2.7M viewers in the first nine days, flat with the S1 average for the same viewing period. The first four episodes of S1 averaged 2.8M so the story is similar when comparing to like number of episodes.

In its freshman season Beast Games delivered a fairly consistent audience by episode (see chart 2) but S2 has plummeted after a very strong start, down more than 50% from E1 to E4. If this trend continues S2 will end up being well under S1.

Source: Luminate. Straight average. (Note: Beast Games S2 = E1-E4 only. All other series are full season.)

Source: Luminate. Straight average.

Tell Me Lies on Hulu: S3 of the dark college drama has brought in 2.1M viewers for the first ten days of the first three episodes. This is +29% above the full S2 average for days 1-10. Just comparing S3 E1-E3 to S2 E1-E3, S3 looks even stronger (+43%). In general, Tell Me Lies is an average performer for Hulu.

Source: Luminate. Straight Average. (Note: Tell Me Lies S3 E1-E3 only. Paradise E1 and Nine Perfect Strangers S2E6 excluded due to data limitations. All other seasons are full.)

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy on Par+: The latest installment in the third TV iteration of the franchise (1960s, 1990s, mid 2010s-mid 2020s) stars Holly Hunter and has collected 2.1M viewers for the first eight days of the first two episodes. While small compared to Taylor Sheridan series, it is above the full season averages for the recent, notable Star Trek series Strange New Worlds S2 and Picard S3. Even if we compare to only the first two episodes of those two Trek series, Academy is still well ahead.

Source: Luminate. Straight Average. (Note: Starfleet Academy is E1-E2 only, all other seasons are full).

His & Hers on Netflix: The very twisty six-episode thriller has been a strong performer for Netflix in its first two weeks of viewing, racking up 16.3M viewers domestically. This puts it towards the top of all Netflix TV seasons in the U.S. since the beginning of 2025. The performance is even stronger globally where it has garnered nearly 50M viewers in its first 1.5 weeks, ranking #5 for the same competitive set.

Domestic and global charts illustrating the show’s contextual placement are below.

Source: Luminate. Straight average.

Source: Netflix

The Rip on Netflix: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s original cop/gang/heist/action/thriller movie earned nearly 18M viewers during its first week of availability. Considering the star power and the genre I expected it to perform better than the actuals in terms of comparative ranking. As of now it is sitting in 11th place for these first seven days among Netflix original movies since 2022, not a bad position in general but for this team-up I think underwhelming.

The global data reflects a result that is a bit more in line with what this level of talent should be able to attract at 42M viewers / 6th place for launch weekend vs movies since June 2023 when average audience data was first released.

Source: Luminate

Source: Netflix