The TV series “The Office” is no longer the most recognized series in America.
With the increasing popularity of streaming services, the viewership of individual series has been a hot topic in recent years. As viewing time becomes one of the most crucial factors influencing a show’s popularity, the longer a show keeps people glued to the screen, the more successful it is. Once upon a time, “The Office” reigned supreme when it came to viewing hours among streaming services in the US. In 2020, amid the pandemic, the series ranked first in the total viewing time for the year.
Photo: NBC
According to Nielsen, American fans watched it for a total of 57.1 billion minutes, the most in the history of streaming up to that point. Although it seemed like that record would remain unbeaten for a while, considering how popular “The Office” continues to be, an unexpected competitor emerged to surpass it. “Suits,” a drama that originally aired on USA Network from 2011 to 2019, achieved massive popularity when it arrived on Netflix last June. In just six months, Netflix viewers watched the series for 57.7 billion minutes, breaking “The Office’s” record.
Photo Netflix
There are various factors influencing this, but the most crucial one is, surprisingly, how much content is available to watch.
Despite “The Office” having more episodes, 201 in total, compared to “Suits,” which has 134, each episode of “Suits” was approximately 42 minutes, practically doubling the length of a typical “The Office” episode. With Netflix still being one of the best streaming services in the US, its overall dominance helped “Suits” take the top spot from “The Office,” which was removed from Netflix in 2020.
