Earlier this week, Netflix reported that Ratched was watched by 48 million households in its first 28 days, scoring the biggest series debut of the year. How did the origin story of the notorious asylum nurse from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest manage to become such a huge hit?
Creative Team
Even before Ratched came out, many people vowed to watch it because Sarah Paulson played the titular role and countless memes about her acting range started circling online. To make the whole thing even better, this series was created by Ryan Murphy, whose projects always bring out the best in Paulson.
Popular Genre
Ratched is inspired by the character from the cult movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and that connection increased the anticipation for this project. It also doesn’t hurt its case that it’s a psychological thriller with a crime element since this genre happens to be extremely popular with Netflix viewers.
Official Announcement
We have to take Netflix’s word for it when it comes to the popularity of Ratched. This streaming giant is still tight-lipped when it comes to viewership numbers. If we had to take a guess about the biggest new series of 2020, our money would be on Tiger King, especially since Nielsen reported that it had 34.3 million unique viewers in the first ten days alone.
