“Paradise” had a heavenly opening week, per Disney, which says Hulu’s Sterling K. Brown-led drama from “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman drew 7 million views across its first nine days of streaming, Variety has learned.
Those stats (a rarity from a streamer that does not regularly release its viewership data) are based on streaming for the “Paradise” series premiere episode only, which debuted as a surprise release on Hulu and Disney+ at 9 p.m. ET on Jan. 26 ahead of the scheduled drop of the show’s first three episodes on Jan. 28. The episode streamed across Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally.
Disney defines a “view” as total stream time for an episode divided by its runtime. Episode 1 of “Paradise,” titled “Wildcat Is Down,” clocks in at just-over-48-minutes long.
For some comparison, Disney said “The Bear” Season 3 premiere episode reached 5.4 million views in its first four days of streaming last June. But it should be noted that, unlike “The Bear,” “Paradise” did not drop all of its episodes (there are eight, in total, for Season 1) at once. The remaining installments in the eight-episode first season of “Paradise” will rollout with new episodes releasing Tuesdays on Hulu.
“Paradise” has remained in the Hulu Top 15 list, which is updated daily, throughout its first week of availability.
The show follows Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) in his life protecting former president Cal Bradford (James Marsden) in a picturesque community. Cal is killed at the top of the premiere and, because of his tumultuous relationship with Xavier before his death, Xavier is left behind as the top suspect in Cal’s murder.
In addition to its surprise release on streaming, Disney experimented with linear sampling for the “Paradise” debut, airing the episode on ABC and FX during the days following its initial drop. The series premiere drew another 1.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s Live + 5 Day ratings, in a special 10:09 p.m. broadcast on ABC on Jan. 29. The episode made its cable debut Feb. 1 at 10 p.m. on FX to 250,000 viewers, per Live + 2 Day data.
According to Hulu, the show’s TikTok account has drawn the most views and shares compared to all first-season scripted Hulu shows over the past 12 months.
Disney has put an enormous push behind the “Paradise” marketing and walked a fine line between promoting a big twist at the center of the show and guarding the secret until viewers share it with each other.
