Netflix drew fewer viewers for the final run of “House of Cards,” but the audience was more female for the Robin Wright-led sixth season.
According to Nielsen’s Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings, which measures streaming viewership, the audience makeup for the final season of “House of Cards” skewed 54 percent female, after the last season that starred Kevin Spacey was made up of 56 percent men.
But overall, viewership for the first seven days since the show’s Season 6 premiere on Nov. 2 was down compared to season five. “House of Cards” truncated eight-episode season drew an average minute audience of 1.5 million, down 21 percent from the 1.9 million that season 5 averaged for its 13 episodes within the same time frame.
Netflix doesn’t publicly release viewership figures for its shows, but Nielsen last year partnered with a handful of major TV networks and studios to help measure streaming viewing.
On an episode-by-episode basis, the premiere of season 6 drew an average audience of 2.88 million (compared to 4.4 million for the first episode of season 5). Viewership eroded for each subsequent episode, with the series finale of Netflix’s debut original series pulling in 901,000 viewers on average within the first seven days.
Viewing for the new season showed more parity in regards to age demographics as well, with older audiences garnering a larger share of viewing compared to the previous season. Most notably, adults ages 18-34 comprised 22 percent of Season 6’s audience (vs 35 percent for Season 5) while adults ages 50-64 accounted for 27 percent (up from 19 percent for Season 5).
Spacey was fired from the Netflix series last December, following multiple accusations of sexual assault, with Netflix deciding to give the show one more shortened season led by Wright’s Claire Underwood character.