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HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - "Wednesday" was the most-streamed program for the third time in the three weeks has been available, again topping the 3-billion minutes watched threshold, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen.
Viewers spent 3.335 billion minutes between Dec. 5-11 watching the eight episodes of Netflix's supernatural mystery charting Wednesday Addams' (Jenna Ortega) years at Nevermore Academy. "Wednesday" was watched for 5.988 billion minutes the week of Nov. 21-27, when it was available for five days, and 5.326 billion minutes the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 4.
The Nov. 21-27 figure was the second-highest amount since Nielsen began releasing weekly streaming figures in January 2020 and the Nov. 28-Dec. 4 figure the fourth-highest.
"Firefly Lane" was second for the second consecutive week with 1.361 billion minutes watched of its 19 episodes, 40.7% more than the 967 million minutes watched the previous week when the nine episodes of the first part of its second season of the Netflix drama were available for three days.
Two other programs also surpassed the 1 billion minutes mark.
The Brad Pitt-starring action comedy film "Bullet Train" rose six spots to third with 1.345 billion minutes watched, 91.9% more than the 701 million minutes watched the previous week when it was available on Netflix for two days.
"Harry & Meghan" was fourth with the first three episodes of the Netflix documentary series watched for 1.265 billion minutes the first four days they were available.
Four other programs were also in the latest top 10 that were not in the previous week's.
"The White Lotus" was seventh with 752 million minutes watched of its 13 episodes, including the finale of the seven-episode second season of the black comedy-drama anthology, which was released on HBO Max the evening of Dec. 11, coinciding with its broadcast on HBO.
"Friends" was eighth with the 235 episodes of the 1994-2004 NBC comedy watched for 737 million minutes, 13% more than the 652 million minutes watched the previous week on HBO Max.
"Yellowstone" returned to the top 10 after a one-week absence, placing ninth with 726 million minutes watched of the 40 episodes of the Paramount Network neo-Western which streams on Peacock. Viewership was up 11.3% from the 652 million minutes watched the previous week when 38 episodes were available.
"Gilmore Girls" cracked the top 10 for the first time since the week of Nov. 7-13, whose figures were released Dec. 8. The 153 episodes of the 2000-07 WB/CW comedy-drama were watched for 628 million minutes on Netflix, 1.5% more than the 619 million minutes watched the previous week.
The Norwegian action-adventure film "Troll" and the documentary series "Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields" both dropped out of the top 10 appearing on it for one week. Both stream on Netflix.
The Netflix supernatural drama "Manifest" dropped out of the top 10 after five consecutive appearances, including back-to-back first-place finishes.
The Netflix drama "The Crown" about the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II dropped out of the top 10 after appearing each of the previous four weeks, including one week it finished first.
The Netflix dark comedy "Dead to Me" dropped out of the top 10 after appearing each of the previous three weeks.
There were seven Netflix programs or movies in the top 10, two programs from HBO Max and one from Peacock. Nielsen also announces streaming viewership of Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu and Prime Video programming.
The top 10 consisted of five acquired series -- the CBS action drama "NCIS," "The White Lotus," "Friends," "Yellowstone" and "Gilmore Girls" -- three original streaming series, one movie and "CoComelon," the 18- episode 3D animated series of videos of traditional nursery rhymes and original children's songs that originated on YouTube.
The top 10 programs were "Wednesday"; "Firefly Lane"; "Bullet Train"; "Harry & Meghan"; "CoComelon"; "NCIS"; "The White Lotus"; "Friends"; "Yellowstone"; and "Gilmore Girls."
The figures reflect only television set viewing, including such television-connected devices as Roku and Apple TV. Mobile-only viewing is not included in Nielsen's streaming measurement systems.
While Nielsen releases weekly prime-time broadcast and cable ratings two days after the end of the week, except for holidays, viewership figures for streaming services are not released until 25 days after the end of the week because it takes more time to completely capture assets to report and aggregate streaming viewing, according to Nielsen.
Nielsen has announced it plans to shorten the release window for the viewership figures from streaming programming in the coming months.