It’s not just the box office that’s been thriving with horror hits like “Obsession,” “Backrooms” or, more recently, “Resident Evil” — TV is getting in on the chills and thrills by reviving and reinventing horror classics.
Two of the fall’s biggest hits originated from seminal movies and books atop any horror buff’s list of essentials — Stephen King’s “Carrie” and the 1980 film “Friday the 13th” — with Prime Video and Peacock respectively tapping into the classic tales for TV adaptations. “Carrie” and “Crystal Lake” risked upsetting existing fan bases with their efforts to extend the stories into ongoing shows, but the gamble paid off, with both debuting to ratings success. It’s proof that mining existing IP for new programming can still yield success with streaming audiences — especially in a tried-and-true high interest genre like horror — as long as the source material is treated with respect.
With both series launching in the weeks leading up to Halloween, Prime Video’s “Carrie” and Peacock’s “Crystal Lake” gave audiences enough familiarity to land on the radar of horror buffs, who typically revisit genre favorites but might be fatigued with watching the same movies over and over again. But in order to make sure the stories — which are both relatively self-contained — have the potential to translate into multi-season series, both worked tweaks that break canon, a move that can be divisive with die-hards fans.
“Carrie,” a present-day retelling of the horror story of a telekinetic girl who turns violent after a bloody prom prank gone wrong, debuted as Prime Video’s No. 1 most-watched title in over 105 countries worldwide; and more impressively made waves across the TV landscape as the No. 1 streaming series for the week of Oct. 5 with 1.26 billion minutes in its first five days, per Nielsen’s streaming charts. It marked Amazon’s second biggest series launch so far this year, behind the 1.8 billion minutes logged by “Reacher” spinoff “Neagley.”
When “Crystal Lake” launched a week later on Peacock, the show tallied 1.3 billion minutes viewed in 11 days, becoming the streamer’s fourth biggest original series launch to date. In the week following its debut, Nielsen placed “Crystal Lake” as the No. 3 streaming original series as well as No. 3 most-watched series among all freshman seasons.
Any complicated feelings about going out of canon might be mitigated by having a trusted shepherd of the story at the helm, like “Carrie” showrunnner Mike Flanagan, who has developed a cult following through his King film adaptations and Netflix horror series; or “Crystal Lake” showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, who also helmed the first season of “It: Welcome to Derry” and will be back for the second.
Most of the shifts from canon are a result of crafting a narrative that squeeze out a couple of seasons, with “Carrie” already renewed for a Season 2 at Prime Video. “Crystal Lake” has yet to get the Season 2 greenlight, but Kane told TheWrap’s Drew Taylor he has thought up an additional three installments.
“I do have a plan for a Season 2, 3 and 4 that lead up to the events of the first movie,” Kane told TheWrap. “I think there’s a lot more story to be told.”
And competitors are taking note of that success.
HBO is hoping to get in on the horror action, and is developing a limited series version of “The Birds,” inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film and Daphne du Maurier’s novella. The modern-day interpretation will extend the events of the original story to include a murder mystery, led by a new female protagonist played by “Succession” and “All Her Fault” star Sarah Snook.
Shall we gear up for a TV adaptation of “Rear Window” or “The Shining” next?
Horror movies of Halloween’s past
In other Halloween news, Nielsen’s added a new data point to its October movie report from a year ago, when the horror genre made up 14.7% of movie minutes in, down slightly from 15.8% in 2024 — a decrease Nielsen attributes to the sensation of “KPop Demon Hunters” and the popularity of true crime doc “The Perfect Neighbor,” both Netflix titles.
The biggest horror streaming movies of last Halloween were “Weapons” with 640 million minutes, “It” with 396 million minutes and “Bring Her Back” with 281 million minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if two certain YouTuber-turned-directors’ hit movies claimed victory this time next year.
Presumably after the month ends we’ll get more updated data for this Halloween season.
NBA season starts strong
The first week of the NBA season brought in its highest viewership to date with over 49 million viewers in the U.S. watching games across ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and NBC/Peacock.
The cumulative viewership is up 33% year-over-year, and average viewership across the eight primetime games is up 19% year-over-year with an average of 3.3 million viewers. When including the opening day game that aired at 3 p.m. ET, viewership is up 15%.
Dolly Parton tribute special draws eyes
“CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton” brought in 4.7 million viewers across ABC and Disney+ as celebrities paid tribute to the country legend.
The special, which boosted ABC to its best Wednesday 9-11 p.m. performance in 2026, ranked as the No. 1 broadcast program in the timeslot, outpacing NBC’s “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire” by 13% and CBS’ “Survivor” and “Amazing Race” by 49%.
ICYMI:
- “Nobody Wants This” Season 3 debuted as Netflix’s No. 2 most-watched English-language series of the week, although viewership slid 28% from last season
- Dedication night on “Dancing With the Stars” boosted the ABC competition series to its biggest non-finale audience in six years
- “The Drew Barrymore Show” hit all-time time series high ratings in its seventh season
Drew Taylor contributed to this reporting.
