The most in-demand show available on Hulu in January was NBC’s perennially popular “Saturday Night Live,” which had 54.64 times the average series demand according to data from Parrot Analytics. Both “SNL” and “Law & Order” are on Hulu though they originally aired on NBC.
Last fall, the Wall Street Journal reported that NBCUniversal parent Comcast was considering pulling some of its content from Hulu to make it exclusive to its own streaming service, Peacock — which would be a big threat to Hulu given the popularity of NBC properties on the platform. (Last month, Peacock and Hulu announced they would share streaming rights to the ABC sitcom “Modern Family.”)
The second and third most in-demand shows on Hulu last month were both anime series — “Attack on Titan” and “My Hero Academia” — underscoring the growing popularity of the genre and its importance to Hulu’s catalog. Beyond being popular in the U.S. this January, “Attack on Titan” was the most in-demand series globally in 2021.
“The Golden Girls” had 30.29 times the average series demand for the month. It is the oldest show among the 10 most in-demand shows on Hulu. While other classic sitcoms like “Friends” and “Seinfeld” have remained consistently popular for other streamers, “The Golden Girls” saw a surge in demand following the death of Betty White in late December 2021.
In Q4, Hulu had the largest share of demand for its on-platform content among SVODs in the United States — even edging out Netflix.
Looking at the 10 most in-demand series available on Hulu, though, it’s clear that most of this demand is coming from series which the platform has licensed. Notably, none of the service’s 10 most in-demand series last month was a Hulu original.
