The social media buzz has continued to rise for the drama series from Julian Fellowes, with Season 3 social conversation volume up 185% from last season and racking up double the number of engagements on the show’s social media posts, according to network data. Instagram and Facebook accounts surged by 188% season-over-season — twice the growth seen from Season 1 to Season 2. 

The social media growth for “The Gilded Age” goes hand-in-hand with its higher ratings, with new episodes reaching series viewership highs for five consecutive weeks. The season capped off with a series high of 5 million multiplatform viewers with the Season 3 finale — up 88% from the season premiere.

HBO went all out to “put the fandom in the drivers’ seat” and catapult the show into the cultural conversation, according to Mark Doumet, VP of originals marketing at HBO Max, taking a distinct approach from the previous two seasons and deploying all resources to lean into the escapist and glamorous nature of the 19th century drama.

“We tore up the playbook,” Doumet told TheWrap. “Instead of treating social media as a way to broadcast to fans, we built it as a space to co-create with them. We identified who the most passionate voices were — from super fans to creators to cultural institutions in New York to the cast. It was our job to give them access and give them a real stake in the storytelling online, so they can advocate on our behalf.”

As HBO shifted its goal from marketing “at” to marketing “with” the fandom, Doumet and his team identified what he calls the show’s “natural evangelists” — which include both content creators who were genuine fans of the show as well as super fans they had been aware of during the previous seasons — and gave them the “tools to spread their passion online.”

HBO partnered with gif companies Tenor and Giphy to make sure each episode’s biggest moments were immediately turned into gifs and memes for fans to engage with, and launched a series called “the weekly tea” that took the “funniest, sharpest fan takes” from X and superimposed them on clips of the episode. The launches created a “feedback loop,” Doumet said, since “fans knew we were watching them, so that kept them posting more.”

Fans were rewarded for their participation with the official social media accounts amplifying their content, as well as swag giveaways, including “Hot Gilded Summer” hats, which have already inspired some Etsy copycats. “Giving them a hat is acknowledgement … it’s like you’re part of the family,” Doumet said. “We want to help you out, just like you’re helping us out.”

Content creators also scored invitations to events throughout the season’s rollout, including an event at the Frick Collection in New York City tied to Episode 4, a Newport-based event for Episode 6 and a finale celebration at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival.

The standout event of the season was date night at the Frick, which brought together roughly 100 content creators — from reality stars Dorinda Medley and Stassi Schroeder to the creators behind beloved New York account Meet Cutes NYC — for an advanced screening of Season 3’s splashy fourth episode, which featured the reluctant nuptials of fan-favorite character Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) to Hector Vere, 5th Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb).

The party, which embraced the Frick’s romantic and glamorous atmosphere, created what Doumet called a “content generation factory,” resulting in an estimated 460 organic pieces of content celebrating “The Gilded Age.” Doumet compared the event to the equivalent of a press junket for content creators, noting that the marketing and media relations teams think broadly about the reach of platforms, whether it’s a press outlet or creator channel.

“It gave creators the perfect backdrop to make their own content with other creators,” Doumet said. “We didn’t script them. We just gave them access to our talent. We gave them a pre-air screening of Episode 4 … We gave them Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector.”

Most importantly to the HBO team, the content felt authentic and rooted in love for the show. “We don’t love the pay to play — we want to find where there’s that organic fit,” Doumet said, noting that Medley reached out to attend the event because she’s a fan of the show and pointing to Schroeder’s “fangirling” during her private tour of the Frick with Baranski and Cynthia Nixon.

It wasn’t just fans who were active on social media, with much of the cast posting behind-the-scenes photos from production in reaction to the episodes. Doumet and his team worked closely with production to bank content that talent could roll out every Sunday, which helped audiences feel like they were watching with the talent.

“It was unguarded moments, showing their relationship with each other … that’s how we want people to think about the show,” Doumet said. “It really enforces that idea that everyone is having a great time, on set but also while watching.”

The team had early conversations with talent running through the show’s marketing strategy, which included the cast as co-marketers as well. “It’s 2025 —everyone is a marketer. Everyone has a phone in their pocket,” he said.

“Our job … is really just empowering the voices who are our best advocates, whether or not that’s creators, it’s super fans online, or it’s the talent,” Doumet said. “We just want to give them the tools, give them our platforms so that they can spread the word of mouth, because that’s what truly creates FOMO.”

“The Gilded Age” Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on HBO Max.

The post How HBO’s Social Media Blitz Catapulted ‘The Gilded Age’ Finale to a Series High | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.

Sunday’s episode of the HBO drama series posted another series high for the fifth consecutive week, gathering 5 million viewers across platforms in its first 3 days of availability, according to internal data from Warner Bros. Discovery. The finale caps off a season of growth for “The Gilded Age,” with viewership for the finale up 88% from the Season 3 premiere, which brought in 2.7 million viewers.

Overall, viewership for Season 3 is pacing 30% ahead of Season 2, and catch-up viewing for the week before the Season 3 finale was 70% higher than Season 2’s pre-finale week.

“The Gilded Age” Season 3 has also been buzzy on social media, with conversations on social seeing a 185% uptick from last season and Season 3 doubling the number of engagements on owned posts compared to last season. The show’s Instagram and Facebook accounts grew by 188% season-over-season — twice the growth compared to Season 1 to Season 2. 

The Season 3 finale gave viewers plenty of twists and relationship dynamic changes ahead of its long hiatus before its already-ordered Season 4. George Russell (Morgan Spector) survived a gunshot wound thanks to treatment from Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), who was in the neighborhood to speak to Peggy (Denée Benton) about her past.

The couple seemed to be on the outs, but William eventually came around and proposed to Peggy in front of all the guests at a ball in Newport. At a different ball, Bertha got to triumphantly cement her place atop the societal food chain once she convinced Mrs. Astor to end the ban on divorced women. The episode also reunited Larry (Harry Richardson) and Marian (Louisa Jacobson), while leaving the future of Bertha and George’s marriage up in the air.

But there’s at least one happy couple in Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and Hector (Ben Lamb), who ended the season learning the news she has a baby on the way.

“The Gilded Age” Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on HBO Max.

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“South Park” Season 27, Episode 2, which premiered Aug. 6, scored 6.2 million multiplatform viewers across Comedy Central and Paramount+ in its first three days, according to Nielsen and internal data. The episode’s multiplatform viewership saw a slight uptick from the premiere, which scored 5.9 million viewers in its first three days.

Episode 2 also saw an uptick on streaming, with “South Park” viewership on Paramount+ growing double digits during the first three days of Episode 2’s release, up 49% when compared to the first three days after the premiere debuted.

On Comedy Central, “South Park” scored its highest-rated episode since 2018 and its biggest share in series history with Episode 2 scoring a 1.53 rating among adults 18-49 and a 15.61 share among adults 18-49. Episode 2 outperformed its premiere episode by 54% when it comes to ratings, and 70% when it comes to share.

Episode 2 also saw a 46% increase from the premiere episode when isolating viewership on Comedy Central, with Episode 2 scoring 1.56 million live-plus-three-day viewers as compared to the 1.07 million viewers brought in by the premiere.

“South Park” Season 27, Episode 2 stood as the No. 1 telecast last Wednesday across all cable programming, and the No. 2 across all TV, behind CBS’ “Big Brother.”

After the Season 27 premiered depicted Trump in bed with Satan, Episode 2 continued their association, this time adding in Vice President JD Vance, while also taking aim at Kristi Noem.

“South Park” Season 27 returns Wednesday, Aug. 20 on Comedy Central.

The post ‘South Park’ Season 27, Episode 2 Ratings Grow From Premiere With 6.2 Million Viewers appeared first on TheWrap.

The latest installment, which returned on Aug. 4, premiered at No. 1 in Hulu’s Top 15 Today and has maintained a spot in the top five since. It also drove 26 million hours or a 41% lift in viewing of previous seasons since buzz began in early March.

Additionally, the series has crossed 1 billion hours streamed globally across the two streaming services. On social media, “King of the Hill” is No. 1 for most cross-platform views of Hulu original comedies in 2025 and No. 1 for most cross-platform engagements, shares and new followers of all Season 1 Hulu Originals in 2025

Season 14 follows Hank and Peggy Hill as they return to a changed Arlen, Texas, after years of working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg. The pair reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane.

The 10-episode season’s cast includes Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Johnny Hardwick, Stephen Root, Lauren Tom and Toby Huss, as well as new addition Ronny Chieng taking over the voice of Kahn.

Original co-creators Judge and Greg Daniels executive produce with 20th Television Animation alongside new showrunner and EP Saladin Patterson. Other EPs include 3 Arts’ Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein, as well as Bandera Entertainment’s Dustin Davis.

The first iteration of “King of the Hill” ran for 259 episodes across 13 seasons from 1997 to 2010, with its final year in first-run syndication. All episodes are available to stream now on Hulu.

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The Peacock reality dating series brought in 1.9 billion viewing minutes from July 7 to July 13, when the Season 7 finale began streaming on Peacock, growing 13.9% from the previous week’s viewership. The massive outcome marks another weekly viewership high for “Love Island USA” — which the show hit nearly every week of Season 7 — as well as the first time the show has taken the top spot on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart after inching towards it all summer.

Over its six-week rollout, “Love Island USA” scored a whopping 8.8 billion minutes of viewing, with 54% of that number coming from adults 18-34 as the top streaming title among adults under 35, per Nielsen.

The finale week, which saw the show crown its Season 7 winners as Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales, further extended the viewership gains “Love Island USA” has seen all season, with viewership growing nearly every week throughout its Season 7 rollout.

The show kicked off with a 41.3% increase from the 772 million minutes scored from its June 3 debut to June 8 to the 1.1 billion viewing minutes tallied up during the week of June 9. Viewership then soared up 33.6% to 1.47 billion viewing minutes during the week of June 16, climbing up to the No. 3 spot on the overall streaming list.

Viewership kept growing past the show’s halfway point, growing 21.1% week-over-week to reach 1.78 billion viewing minutes during the week of June 23, climbing up to the No. 2 on the overall list. The week of June 30 was the only week not to see viewership growth, but didn’t slide down too much, reaching 1.7 billion minutes and still ranking as the No. 2 overall streaming series.

While “Love Island USA” hit the top spot this time, another Netflix effect transpired with “Sullivan’s Crossing,” which debuted on the streamer on July 8 to 1.35 billion minutes during the week, exceeding viewership for “Squid Game,” which hit 1.25 billion minutes during the interval.

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Up until two months ago, the show was slated to premiere on Starz before making an unexpected switch to Netflix — and the move certainly paid off. The Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman-led series debuted as the streamer’s third most-watched TV title with 5.2 million views the week of July 21 and grew in its second week to 5.8 million views, coming second only to the Eric Bana-led hit “Untamed.”

The impressive viewership for “The Hunting Wives” — coupled with its undeniable touch on pop culture — marks a big win for Lionsgate TV Group Chair and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Beggs, who first saw the potential in the show from writer-showrunner Rebecca Cutter.

“We always felt that if viewers found it, it could break out,” Beggs told TheWrap. “When you have a platform as big as Netflix … that gives you every chance to succeed. That’s what every producer and supplier like us dreams about.”

“The Hunting Wives” was greenlit to series by Starz in October 2023, fitting into the network’s female-centric titles like “Three Women” and “Outlander.” But the separation of Lionsgate and Starz, which was approved by shareholders in April, prompted Beggs and the Lionsgate TV team to think about where the series could best thrive. (It’s also been reported that Lionsgate TV was envisioning a multi-season run for “The Hunting Wives,” while Starz planned it as a limited series.)

When it came time for Lionsgate TV to express interest in buying back the rights to “The Hunting Wives” to then sell to Netflix, Beggs said the discussion between both parties was “amicable.”

“Everybody collaborated very creatively and in the spirit of partnership that we always had, from the first day that we came together as a company to the last day that we were together and now standing alone,” Beggs said. “I think the outcome has worked out well for everyone.”

The ink was dry by early June, just a month and a half ahead of the July 21 debut on Netflix, giving the Lionsgate TV team only a few weeks to grow awareness for the show’s new streaming home. This lead to what Beggs calls a “guerrilla marketing campaign” from the studio’s marketing and publicity teams to promote “The Hunting Wives,” which included leveraging social media influencers and a push on Lionsgate’s YouTube, FAST and AVOD channels.

That sort of push from the studio side is unusual, as networks/streamers tend to direct promotion while studios provide complementary support, but the limited-time frame situation called for a unique solution.

“We felt that it was important that we dive in,” Beggs said.

Beggs said Netflix also “jumped on in a huge way” post-release, adding a splashy billboard on Sunset Boulevard to bring awareness to the show. “They’ve been amplifying, complementing and reinforcing the message,” Beggs said.

The grass-roots campaign, paired with much word-of-mouth from fans, boosted “The Hunting Wives” to the top of Netflix’s charts, and has left audiences wanting more.

“There’s a lot of adjectives thrown around about shows that break out, but sometimes, a noisy, wildly commercial, and a little dose of shock and awe thrown in in the middle of summer — I call it kind of a visual beach read — is very well timed,” Beggs said. “There was a reason that there was a competitive bidding to get it.”

After the Season 1 finale, finishing with a cliffhanger that sets up a new dynamic between Sophie (Snow) and Margo (Akerman), Beggs said Lionsgate TV and Netflix are “having discussions about a second season,” but remained tight-lipped about any other details regarding those conversations.

The win for “The Hunting Wives” comes just weeks after a successful Emmy nomination morning for Lionsgate TV’s “The Studio,” which scored 23 nods for Apple TV+, breaking the record for most comedy nominations in a single year and becoming the most-nominated freshman comedy. (Apple has not released viewership data for “The Studio” to date, and it did not appear on the Nielsen streaming charts during its first season.)

The critical acclaim for “The Studio” marks a different type of success than the commercial popularity of “The Hunting Wives,” but Beggs still underscored the cost-benefit analysis he and his team employ when looking for a home for their shows. “On a giant platform, you have to have a giant number to be relevant, and on a smaller platform, your big splash is more meaningful,” he said.

The common tie between “The Hunting Wives” and “The Studio” for Beggs is that they’re both “noisy and lean-forward television,” with the “compelling and propulsive murder mystery” in “The Hunting Wives” feeling just as addictive as the splashy shenanigans and cameos in “The Studio.” Series, he said, “have to have some compelling must-watch [factor] now … or they’re easily lost in a sea of shows.”

The post ‘The Hunting Wives’: Lionsgate’s Kevin Beggs Spills on the ‘Guerrilla Marketing Campaign’ That Propelled the Buzzy Hit | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.

The deal will also integrate the measurement firm’s insights into WPP’s Open Media Studios platform. The move is aimed at providing advertisers with more actionable insights to inform their campaign planning and measurement.

“We are thrilled to continue working with WPP Media to provide the most actionable insights across planning, buying, and measurement for brands to make the most informed decisions about their advertising investments,” Nielsen advertiser and agencies head Matt Devitt said in a statement. “Collaborating with leading industry players like WPP Media helps us collectively power the future
of audience measurement and technology that actually helps advertisers connect with audiences.”

“At WPP Media, our priority is equipping clients with the intelligence and tools they need to drive measurable growth,” WPP’s executive director of research and investment analytics Nicolas Grand said in a statement. “Nielsen’s continued innovation in advanced measurement—especially the combination of Big Data with trusted Panel insights—makes them a valued partner in that mission.
By integrating Nielsen’s advanced audiences into WPP Open, we’re building a more seamless, interoperable planning and measurement ecosystem that empowers advertisers to optimize performance and accelerate growth.”

The latest agreement follows the launch of Nielsen’s outcomes marketplace, which brings together key brand, sales, attention, and conversion metrics within the Nielsen ONE platform.

Each month, it publishes Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge reports looking at shares of TV viewing for broadcast, cable and streaming by company and by platform. It also publishes a quarterly Ad-Supported Gauge report, which looks at TV viewing among ad-supported platforms for broadcast, cable and streaming.

The firm’s measurement is powered by person-level data from panels of over 1.2 million individuals.

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First off, let’s get “Squid Game” out of the way. Season 3 is undeniably the biggest hit of the summer — streaming or otherwise — logging 60.1 million views in its first three days on Netflix, more than any other show has secured in that timeframe. The season has tallied up 134.7 million views to date, rivaling the all-time viewership for “Adolescence,” which stands at 142.6 million, and “Stranger Things 4,” at 140.7 million.

Coming second to “Squid Game” on Nielsen’s streaming charts, Peacock’s “Love Island USA” boasted a record-breaking audience in Season 7 after last year’s installment caught the attention of reality lovers across the board. “Love Island” was the No. 2 most-watched streaming program for the weeks of June 23 and June 30 with 1.78 billion and 1.7 billion viewing minutes, respectively.

Viewing of the show has steadily grown from 1.1 billion viewing minutes the week of June 9.

Also making a strong return was “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” which scored 25 million viewers globally in its first week on Prime Video with the drop of its first two episodes on July 16, according to internal data provided to press. The third and final season of the YA series is already outpacing its previous seasons, soaring over Season 2 by 40% and tripling from Season 1 within the same timeframe.

Prime Video also saw some streaming success with YA adaptation “We Were Liars,” which made it into Nielsen’s top 10 streaming originals list for the first three weeks since its June 18 release, so far peaking during the week of June 23 with 420 million viewing minutes.

Similarly, HBO’s “The Gilded Age” has been on a hot streak this summer as it scored viewership series highs for three consecutive weeks, with Episode 6 scoring 4.5 million viewers across HBO and Max in its first three days. The drama series, which has already been renewed for a fourth season, is now tracking 25% higher than Season 2, with each episode this season seeing week-over-week audience growth.

The Eric Bana-led “Untamed” also made a strong debut as Netflix’s top TV show for the week of July 14 with 24.6 million views, which grew to 26.1 million views in its second week.

And a surprise hit this week has been “The Hunting Wives,” the racy Texas-set drama series which made a last-minute shift from Starz to Netflix. The eight-episode series scored 5.2 million views on Netflix on its first week, becoming the No. 3 most-watched TV series behind “Untamed” and “Amy Bradley Is Missing,” and looks likely to keep growing into next week.

While the summer translates to slower months for broadcast, unscripted series are main attraction for broadcast networks and seem to keep audiences occupied just fine. “America’s Got Talent,” which ranks as the No. 1 summer broadcast show, is averaging 4.7 million viewers to date on NBC while “Celebrity Family Feud” scored 4.16 million viewers on ABC for its premiere, dipping to 3.84 million viewers and 3.78 million viewers, respectively, in the following weeks.

After premiering its 27th season on July 10, “Big Brother” has reached nearly 26 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+, with multiplatform viewership for the first two weeks averaging 4.8 million viewers season-to-date, up 9% from last summer’s first two weeks. Overall, “Big Brother” ranks as the No. 2 summer broadcast show.

ABC’s “Bachelor in Paradise” debuted to 3.73 million viewers after seven days of viewing across ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms, and the dating show has consistently been the top linear program of Monday night among adults 18-49.

Hallmark’s “Christmas in July” special soars

Hallmark annual “Christmas in July” special boosted the channel to rank as the No. 1 most-watched entertainment cable network on weekends throughout July among key demographics, including households, total viewers, women 18+ and viewers 18+ in primetime, and among households and women 18+ in total day. Overall, “Christmas in July” programming reached 12.6 million total viewers.

Additionally, the network’s four new original movie premieres ranked as the top entertainment cable each Saturday during “Christmas in July.”

WNBA keeps growing

Demand for the WNBA just keeps growing, with the July 27 matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky scoring 1.5 million viewers, up 17% from last year’s regular season average on ABC. The game ranks as the No. 6 most-watched regular-season game on ABC ever as well as the No. 4 most-watched regular season game on ABC this season.

Cable News Sees Year-Over-Year Decrease, But Fox News Still Leads the Way

Cable news saw a double-digit decrease in viewership across the board when compared to last July. MSNBC saw the smallest decrease, down 27% year-over-year to reach an average 865,000 total viewers in July, while CNN fell 43% to reach 497,000 viewers and Fox News was down 30% to 2.41 million total viewers.

The year-over-year decreases for July were higher for the key 25-54 demographic, with Fox News down 48% (257,000 demo viewers), CNN down 55% (92,000) and MSNBC down 40% (81,000).

Still, Fox News scored enough total viewers in primetime to outpace the average primetime viewership of the broadcast networks (which are experiencing slower months without scripted series and fall sports) with NBC averaging 2.1 million viewers while CBS and ABC both brought in an average 2 million viewers, respectively.

The post Summer TV Ratings: ‘Love Island USA,’ ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ and ‘Untamed’ Stir Up Strong Streaming Numbers appeared first on TheWrap.

The season kicked off to impressive ratings growth during its premiere week as its first batch of episodes averaged 4.9 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+, according to live-plus-seven-day data from Nielsen and Paramount — up 11% from last summer’s premiere week. On Paramount+ alone, streaming viewership for “Big Brother” was up 9%.

Season 27 then kept things going, with its first two weeks averaging 4.8 million multiplatform viewers, marking a 9% increase from last summer’s first two weeks of “Big Brother.”

Overall, “BB27” ranks as the No. 2 most-watched summer broadcast show, behind NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” and is the No. 6 most-watched summer series across broadcast and streaming.

On Paramount+, “Big Brother” ranks as the No. 1 unscripted program and No. 7 program overall in reach and total time spent since its premiere. 

“Big Brother” got off to a solid start in its live-plus-same-day viewership, with its July 10 premiere scoring 2.99 million viewers, according to Nielsen data, up 10% from last summer’s part 1 premiere and up 29% from last summer’s part 2 premiere. The episode on Sunday, July 13, then debuted to 2.56 million viewers, up 12% from last summer’s first Sunday episode, with Paramount+ live streaming seeing a 28% increase when compared to its first Sunday of Season 26.

The Season 27 premiere also scored nearly 282 million potential social impressions during the Sunday premiere, up 27% from last year’s part 2 premiere.

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The HBO drama series hit another series high this week, with 4.5 million viewers tuning in for Sunday’s Season 3, Episode 6, in its first three days, according to internal data from Warner Bros. Discovery.

Viewership for Season 3 is tracking 25% higher than the previous season. Every episode so far has shown consistent audience growth week-to-week as viewers tune in on HBO and HBO Max. The milestone comes as the show has already received a Season 4 renewal, with two episodes left to air from Season 3.

Social media engagement is also up, with social chatter increasing nearly 60% week over week. “The Gilded Age” Season 3 also scored a 95% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the highest critical score the series has earned to date.

“We couldn’t be prouder of the undeniable viewership heights ‘The Gilded Age’ has achieved this season. Transporting us to 1880s New York City, Julian Fellowes and the enormously talented cast and crew have created a ‘cant-miss it’ entertainment experience from week to week, and we’re delighted to continue exploring these characters’ grand ambitions for what we promise will be a thrilling fourth season,” Francesca Orsi, EVP for HBO Programming as well as head of HBO Drama Series and Films, said in a statement celebrating the Season 4 renewal.

“The Gilded Age” airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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