(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.)
Last week, I had dinner with a friend who works at a streamer, but doesn’t know what I do. We were chatting about TV shows, and he kept calling TV shows that flopped “hits”. Literally, he mentioned a show that I had nominated as a “Miss of the Year” (because it had never made a viewership chart, which means no one watched it) as a huge hit.
It was a good reminder: I have a ton of work to do! Way too many people in Hollywood still don’t know what’s not working!
Hollywood has a lot of problems these days, especially dealing with massive technological disruption. And one of the biggest side effects of that technological change is a lack of data (like Nielsen used to provide) for what’s working on TV and what isn’t (ignoring that Nielsen still releases top ten lists). People retreat back to online media bubbles and avoid uncomfortable data. It’s confirmation bias at its best/worst. I’d argue that this lack of (awareness of the) data has led too many studios (especially the traditional studios) to make shows that most average Americans don’t want to watch.
Thus, today, as I do every six months, I’m looking at the flops, bombs and misses of the first half of 2025.
Like always, though, I discovered new wrinkles and fun trends. As I wrote in the film article, I keep expecting the number of flops and misses to go down—Hollywood is making fewer scripted shows than ever—but it never does. I also found one overrated genre that was over-represented in the list that follows, plus I discovered another content trend that should make you skeptical about one of the most hyped narratives of the 2020s. And a brand new streamer joined the list for the first time!
If you want to read the full methodology for how I assemble this list, check out my last article. In short, this list is…
…scripted and unscripted TV shows,
…from the eight major streamers,
…in the US (using US-only ratings),
…excluding true crime, kids and foreign-language shows,
…that got no/poor ratings,
…from Jan-2025 to the end of June-2025.
Reminder: this article does not represent my personal opinion—many of these shows are great!—but I follow the data, and a miss is a miss and a bomb is a bomb.
As with past editions, I ordered this list by streamer, going from best (fewest flops) to worst (the most misses)—taking the size of the flops into consideration—but unlike past years, compiling this list this go around was a real nail-biter to see who “won”, meaning had the most TV show flops.
Now, you might be saying, “Hey EntStrategyGuy, I’ve been reading these lists for years; Apple TV+ always has the most expensive and extensive list of TV show flops.” And yeah, spoiler alert, they have a bunch this year too. But two other streamers gave them a real run for their money…so did Apple TV+ get dethroned for the first time in the last three years?
But let’s start with a brand new streamer making this list for the first time!
Tubi
- Boarders
- The Z Suite
Last February, I wrote about Tubi’s new Originals strategy for The Ankler, focusing on the new show The Z Suite, providing both sides of the argument for why Tubi would want to launch originals, and why it might not work. Compared to a lot of failed “social video” attempts at originals, Tubi had some inherent advantages. Of course, I was also very skeptical, since the original content game ain’t easy.
Winner: The Z Suite
It’s safe to say that my skepticism was warranted. Luminate tracks viewership on Tubi, and their (ultra-cheap) films pop up on the charts all the time, but The Z Suite (starring Lauren Graham!) did not. Also, we have independent verification from IMDb: The Z Suite is sitting at a measly 381 reviews. Yikes!
Again, I’m bullish on sitcoms, funny comedies, and weekly-released TV shows, but The Z Suite didn’t work. I’m very curious to see what Tubi’s next steps look like.
Paramount+
- RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars
- School Spirits
- SkyMed
Honorable Mentions: The Carters: Hurts to Love You, Chopper Cops Family Legacy, FBI True, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Untucked
Man, I think Paramount Global, er, Skydance, er, Paramount-Skydance Global Unlimited Corporation, is so underrated. Seriously, they only had two scripted misses. One is a scripted YA show that’s coming back for a third season; the other is Canadian. And that’s it. Meanwhile, they had hit shows in 1923, MobLand and Criminal Minds. Happy Face did okay. (You could also toss in Yellowjackets, but that show is balanced out by other Showtime misses like The Chi.)
In all, Paramount+’s (rather limited) scripted shows are hitting at nearly 50% That’s amazing, something only one other streamer can claim.
And that’s not their only content pipeline; 50% of viewership on Paramount+ comes from CBS shows! Compared to NBCUniversal, which sometimes almost looks like it’s going to get out of scripted programming entirely in favor of sports, Paramount is trying to do both. I love it.
Winner: School Spirits
School Spirits gets the “win/Loss” for Paramount+ by default, since it’s the only scripted original from the US, but I debated not giving a “winner/loser” to any Paramount+ shows, since they’re all so low budget.
Peacock
- Law & Order: Organized Crime
- Lockerbie: A Search for Truth
- The Traitors (UK)
Honorable Mentions: Nelly and Ashanti: We Belong Together, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
As I’ve written a few times now, I think NBCUniversal is heading down the wrong strategic path, prioritizing sports, and just sports, over any and all scripted content. (They’re like the reverse Netflix: a ton of scripted programming and only a handful of sporting events.) Peacock didn’t release all that many shows over the first half of the year, so they didn’t have all that many misses, just a scripted British import, an unscripted British import, and a procedural.
Meanwhile, unlike Paramount+, their hits were few and far between. Love Island USA killed it on the charts in terms of total hours, but since Peacock put out new episodes daily, that means it likely had lower reach than other shows. Poker Face’s viewership was way down from its first season, and Long Bright River wasn’t a miss, but it wasn’t a hit either.
Winner: Law & Order: Organized Crime
As Criminal Minds showed, broadcast procedurals can make the charts, but this one didn’t. (To be fair, it has way fewer episodes than that show.) Still, this show left NBC for Peacock, and the viewers didn’t travel with it.
Disney+
We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out…
- What overhyped narrative resulted in a bunch of streaming flops…
- What overrated genre is still really overrated…
- What streamer had the most misses in first half of 2025…and it’s not Apple TV+!
- What Disney+ should learn from a bad release date…
- What to learn from HBO Max’s “winner/loser” of the half year.
- And a lot more…
…please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you’d like to read more about why you should subscribe, please read this article about the Streaming Ratings Report, why it matters, why you need it, and why we cover streaming ratings best.
